First inkling

Diary

Looking back, there was a first realization that I might clash with Coca-Cola's famous culture. It was 1995, and my group and I were trapped in one of those Human-Resources-subcontracted, horrifically American religious rallies:

"You are empowered™! You know, you can do anything you want to do! You can be anything, anything at all!!!...Yes, Dr. Dose?"

"Excuse me, but I can never be a pregnant schnauzer no matter what I do."

It was downhill from there.

I thought I could suffer with Coke's system, and do my bit to better it, but now I see that I would have had to become a different--certainly a worse--person. In my 8 years there Minute Maid's and Coke's cultures have changed, and not for the better. I wish them all the best, but my coping with their culture would have required failing at life.