MSG Presents: "Characters From Corporate": Brooklyn Hustle vs. Career Strategy

In this episode of Characters from Corporate, we dive into the story of a 34-year-old Black woman from Brooklyn who reflects on her hustle mentality during her 20s—working 90-hour weeks at a call center to survive and build a life. Her attorney sister challenges her perspective, questioning whether those long hours were the best use of her time for career advancement. Was it survival or a missed opportunity? Join us as we explore the balance between hustling for immediate needs and planning for long-term success. Is she a character from corporate, or just someone doing what needed to be done? Tune in and decide for yourself.

Transcript

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. all right. Let's get into this characters from corporate thing. We do this every week. If this is your first time joining the show, this is just our way of trying to give a little feedback to those who are in corporate.

We say characters because we know it's a lot of interesting people in a corporate environment. The question usually becomes, you know, is the person writing in the character or the people that they're dealing with? All right, so this week's submission, it comes from a 34-year-old black woman who is from Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn in the house.

Brooklyn is in the house. She says, I get a lot outta characters in corporate because you all are offering feedback that is really tough to come by in corporate America, she says. Now, I was explaining to my teenage niece the other day that when I was in my twenties, I worked at a call center. Okay, so did I.

Okay. All right. All, yeah, me too. Yeah, she said, I was telling my niece that I used to work 90 hour weeks, 9 0, [00:01:00] 90 hour weeks, and use that money to get apartments, cars, and other things that I needed. Now, as I was talking to my niece, my older sisters, who, who was her mother. She's an attorney and she suggested to me that maybe that working 90 hours a week at that call center wasn't the best use of time because I could have been working somewhere else or using that time better to move further along in my career.

Okay. Do you agree with my sister or do you agree with me? And she says, and on a final note, at that time I was totally on my own and I needed that money to survive. Mm. Am I a character from corporate? She was in the twenties working at a call center 90 hours a week. Mm-hmm. That's a lot of hours too. Now.

That's a lot of hours. But she was on own doing it, right? Doing it [00:02:00] for herself. Car, apartment. Yeah. I did it. Like I said, I had two jobs at the same time. I was working at one call center during the day and one call center at night. So I get it. I did. Yeah. Y'all from that generation of you, you said it, you saw your pops working, doing whatever he needed to do to bring home the bacon.

No problem. And so you kind of took that on. I never was on that. My pops always had like one supremely high paying job with it. Always felt like he was the boss and didn't have to do nothing. Mm-hmm. That's what it always felt like. So I've been on that. Like I ain't about to exert no extra labor if I don't need to, but, um, no, you're not a character from corporate.

You, you was doing what you, you was doing what you thought you had to do at the time to survive. I think your sister is right. You know that there could have been a better use of your time. Yes. But you didn't know, [00:03:00] and you did what you were supposed to do at that time. So you're good. In my opinion, my humblest opinion.

I don't think you're character from corporate. E What about you? Uh, I don't think she's a character because I, I felt like I was in a similar situation. Um, I do think your sister is right. I may, maybe at a certain point you could have decided to maybe let that go, but I get it. I don't say, I wouldn't say you were a character.

I agree. You, you did what you had to do and um, you seem like you're okay with it. You know, you seem like you're at peace with the decision, so Nah. But again, your sister, I could see how some would say she's correct. Nothing wrong with that. Something to think about, you know? Opportunity costs. Yeah. Was there an opportunity cost in play because you spend so much time because like you work 90, maybe you could have worked 60.

90 is a lot. It's only 168 hours in a week. That's two shifts plus 10 hours. So it's, it's a lot. It's a lot. So, yeah. I wonder now, I [00:04:00] guess, too, let me, I wonder what, did you stack anything outta that? Or was it all consumable goods? Yeah. And what are you doing now? Like, what is doing, you know? Yeah. Are you an entrepreneur?

You know, I'd just love to know what the progression come back. Give us some, give us, answer some of those questions so we can readdress this. Maybe in another episode Id like to hear, I'd like you to answer those questions. But as of right now, preliminary, preliminary hearing, you are not a character from corporate, but the, uh, the jury is still out.

So you need to answer some questions so we can get back to you