The show is among the “first of its kind” to center Black workplace issues in television, says writer Jordan Reddout — and it’s long overdue.
, said her account was born from her own adversities in the workplace, describing hostile environments where she felt isolated and devalued.
“I’d be on important projects, but I’d be excluded from emails where the decisions had to be made about the project, and sometimes they’d be on purpose,” said Jimenez who has worked in the corporate sector for more than 21 years as a specialist in instructional technology and distance education.One show Jimenez said she’d like to see: A reality TV program based in a corporate workplace. “Because there’s a group of people out there that don’t believe that these things happen,” she said.
“It was just really exciting ... to have all these women talking to each other about their experiences and what they identified with in the story and who they identified with and the way that they would answer the questions that Nella is faced with,” she said. “It was very cathartic, honestly, it felt like therapy a lot of days.”
Speculation about Nella’s new colleague Hazel has dominated conversations on social media, as users have questioned her hidden agenda.But the series has also spurred deeper questions, including one that is posed to Nella halfway through the series: “How much longer are you willing to compromise yourself for a paycheck?”
For Reddout, the essence of the show is to provide a space for this kind of introspection: “To give women, Black women specifically, but also all people a space to start examining these questions of what you’re willing to sacrifice to get ahead in life and in a system that is not built for you or what your relationships are with other Black women in these spaces.”“I’m just thrilled by it because we were just making a show for us and now, thank God, it’s also a show for a lot of people.