Avocados & Attitude

Where lunch is green and empathy is extinct

There was a time I thought Mean Girls only existed in high school. Then I joined the marketing team at a well-known real estate company in Austin, TX, and learned that some people just age into more expensive shoes and better benefits.

The department looked polished on the surface: clean desks, perfectly styled hair, filtered smiles. But beneath that veneer was a workplace sorority so toxic, even my ancestors felt disrespected. The clique? A tight-knit circle of avocado-eating blondes and brunettes whose personalities were as beige as their wardrobes. No seasoning. No substance. And certainly no space for anyone who didn’t look, think, or act like them.

I was one of three people in the team who didn’t belong to their sorority. The other two? Men. Harmless. Not seen as a threat. But me? I was an anomaly. Not white. Not Jewish. No highlights in my hair. Not one of them. And they made sure I knew it. I didn’t belong in their clique. And they had no problem letting that show through every glance, whisper, and lunch I was never invited to.

And let me tell you this wasn’t your garden-variety exclusion. This was cold war-level corporate snobbery. They didn’t scream or throw tantrums. That would take too much energy and ruin their Botox. No, they’d just glance past you…