Speaking Truth to Power - Anita Hill [37]
I worked on this project along with other routine office matters during the winter of 1981 and into the following spring. In the spring of 1982 before the conference occurred, Thomas called me into his office and confirmed the rumors that he had been nominated to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He advised me that I could go with him and do the same kind of work there that I was doing at Education. He even indicated that there might be some way for us to continue to be involved in the conference I was planning. Thomas made clear that he would do what he could to protect my position if I decided to stay at Education, but that he had no real control over it. It sounded as though the talk about abolishing the department was serious. In February 1982 David Stockman of the Office of Management and Budget had alluded to administration plans for a “major, sweeping program to hold the deficit down” that included the elimination of the Department of Education. This played into Thomas’ decision to go to the EEOC, even though the administration did not hold that agency in high regard either.
As Thomas explained it, the choice seemed to be between certain employment at the EEOC and uncertain or no employment if I stayed at Education. I did not inquire further about his assessment of the situation. Again I was trying to ignore the personal implications in favor of making a purely professional choice. Consequently, I did not ask him about his past objectionable behavior toward me, nor did I seek assurances that it would not be repeated at the EEOC. As far as I was concerned, it was a closed chapter. I relied on Thomas’ professionalism and hoped that he, too, had separated personal considerations from workplace responsibilities.
Despite my concerns, I knew that Thomas in an odd way was offering me job security. Putting my misgivings aside in hindsight, even foolishly so, I decided to take the job at the EEOC as Thomas’ assistant. I was apprehensive, but I chose to look forward. Again I was attracted by the challenge of learning a new area of policy and instituting some positive programs at the EEOC. In the summer of 1982, as I cleared out my desk at the Education office on Third and C Streets Southwest and moved into the Foggy Bottom offices of the EEOC, I focused on the potential for growth the change offered. The work, the people, even the EEOC offices, were very different from those at the Office for Civil Rights. Whereas the offices for Education had been old, traditional, and utilitarian government office building with beige walls, gray tile floors, and metal furniture, the EEOC office was a newer, modern structure once slated to be a hotel. Still, both were dilapidated. Where the ceiling leaked in the Education office building, the ventilation was poor in the EEOC office building.
Initially, Thomas’ office staff at EEOC was quite small; indeed he was understaffed. Along with a childhood friend of Thomas’, Carlton Stewart, I was one of only two lawyers and personal assistants at first. Diane Holt had come over from Education and was one of two secretaries. Out of necessity, I became more involved with day-to-day agency administration and did less work on special projects. To keep up with regular commission meetings, I was assigned to review the claims brought before the commission. Thomas had to be briefed on the cases and advised as to the kinds of questions raised and whether the commission should use its resources to pursue the claims. The EEOC, not unlike other federal agencies, was backlogged.