Mistreating an underling at Forbes in the 1980s

Kerry Hannon writes on Forbes.com about what happened to her when she was a young journalist at the business magazine in the 1980s.

Hannon writes, “I was a young reporter at Forbes back in the mid-80s and assigned to do the legwork for a well-known female columnist’s column.

“It was an honor. I loved tackling the reporting assignments for her column, interviewing the people, and writing up my findings. She would use my material for her column, which appeared every two weeks. I was learning so much and reveled in watching her use her smarts, and wild blonde hair to wield her coveted real estate at the magazine. I wanted to be like her when I grew up, I suppose.

“One day, she had a cover story for the magazine, or I should say, we did. I reported a huge chunk of it, flying around the country to interview top academics in California and so forth. It was heady stuff.

“When the day came for it to go to press, the copy desk editor, showed me the advance pages and wow, the columnist had given me a co-byline on the story. I was walking on air–my name on a cover story for Forbes.

“I  raced out to buy flowers for her and took them to her office to say thanks. She snapped ‘What are these for?’ When I told her, she said, ‘You are not getting a byline. It’s my cover.’

“And that was that.”

Read more here.