As with all of the “Work” comics, this really happened and it happened exactly like this. Looking back, I can almost get her point, but then I remember that I was such a low level peon that it couldn’t have mattered.
To become a manager at that company, you needed to be hired into the management track. That only happened if you went to a school that they deemed upper tier (it never occurred to them that people might need financial aid or scholarships). If you weren’t hired into the management track, it was almost impossible to ever become a manager. You had to be stellar for at least 5 years. Even then, you could only attain the lowest level of management and they made it seem like it was some sort of magnanimous thing to taint their perfect world by advancing a lower level worker. It was gross to watch.
Those in the management track were put through the ringer. They only hired kids 0-3 years out of college, overpaid them a ton, told them they were better than everyone else, and asked them not to fraternize with the non-management employees. These kids were then put in leadership roles. Image a 22 year old coming in trained think she is better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than a group of 30-50 year olds who have had the same position for 2-25 years. It lead to terrible morale and I often felt bad for these kids. In such a culture, they usually refused to learn and only focused on short-term growth. They thought the only way to get ahead was to keep the lessers in line and squeeze them to be more productive. A lot of them had potential to be really great leaders, but often just became uncompromising dogmatic assholes.
Either way, I insisted this manager ask our director. He immediately said yes and was thrilled at the opportunity. Volunteering in Tanzania and working with those children ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done with my life.