Nepotism at work?

[PNWguy]

My company is the most prolific participant in nepotism that I have ever seen.

When summer starts, all of the higher ups' high school kids are given paid internships for the summer.  This is a college town and summer internships are highly sought after by college students looking for experience and income between school years and even after graduation.

In my position, I process all of the new employees and coordinate their campus visits for interviews.  We average about 2-3 interviews a day for internship positions.  I've never seen an employee's relative even do an interview; they just get hired. I saw at least half a dozen of them get positions the past month.

And it's not just internships but full-time positions seem to get handed out to relatives and immediate family members without regard to merit.  The director of HR had her college son intern for three weeks, then get hired full time as an HR associate and direct report to his mom! The head of HR!

I encouraged my neighbor to apply for a job in our machine shop having known him for a couple of years and impressed by his experience.  He didn't get the job and didn't really talk about it.  Yesterday, I was talking with him and he said that when he came in and took a welding test at my company, someone turned his gas off while he was welding so he failed the test.  Found out through a mutual friend that another employee's relative got the job with almost no experience.  He said he was glad he didn't get the job.  Doesn't want to work for a company with such screwed up values.

Everywhere else I have worked had strict rules against such behavior, but I guess it's not illegal; just stupid.

How about where you work?

 

 

 

[XSIV4S]

4 minutes ago, PNWguy said:

My company is the most prolific participant in nepotism that I have ever seen.

When summer starts, all of the higher ups' high school kids are given paid internships for the summer.  This is a college town and summer internships are highly sought after by college students looking for experience and income between school years and even after graduation.

In my position, I process all of the new employees and coordinate their campus visits for interviews.  We average about 2-3 interviews a day for internship positions.  I've never seen an employee's relative even do an interview; they just get hired. I saw at least half a dozen of them get positions the past month.

And it's not just internships but full-time positions seem to get handed out to relatives and immediate family members without regard to merit.  The director of HR had her college son intern for three weeks, then get hired full time as an HR associate and direct report to his mom! The head of HR!

I encouraged my neighbor to apply for a job in our machine shop having known him for a couple of years and impressed by his experience.  He didn't get the job and didn't really talk about it.  Yesterday, I was talking with him and he said that when he came in and took a welding test at my company, someone turned his gas off while he was welding so he failed the test.  Found out through a mutual friend that another employee's relative got the job with almost no experience.  He said he was glad he didn't get the job.  Doesn't want to work for a company with such screwed up values.

Everywhere else I have worked had strict rules against such behavior, but I guess it's not illegal; just stupid.

How about where you work?

 

 

 

Is this a family business with less than 100 employees or a larger corporation?

[Alcoy]

I used to work for a small family-owned business.  HS kids (relatives) get paid internships.  Not so much for regular jobs, like your company does.

[janice6]

Reminds me of a cartoon I saw many, many, years ago.

It was the company CEO in a three piece suit with a youngster at his side and they were in a company mailroom.

 

The CEO is saying, "I'd like you to meet my son.  He's starting at the bottom, for a few days".

[Mr. Black]

I have been working on EMS Helicopters for almost 25 years.   Yeah, I'd say we have a 0.5% Nepotism problem in my line of work.  

[Dric902]

My industry (railroad) used nothing but nepotism for decades.

i hired out in 96, the closest hire to me was 26 years before that. But generations of railroaders are prevalent 

[BMyers]

It is a family business, so yes family gets hired. Third generation owned by the same family. 

[*OldSchool*]

With my work experience - you had to have the skills, abilities, experience, etc... or you didn't get the job.

One exception to that rule was when they'd hire anyone they could get. That was the last job that I quit. Was also my best paying job, meaning gross pay per year. At $16 per hour I made ~60k in one year. Over-time..... boss said I could work as much OT as I wanted, just didn't want me living there.

So - I have not seen favoritism given to relatives in my work history.

Edited July 4, 2018 by *OldSchool*

[PNWguy]

1 hour ago, XSIV4S said:

Is this a family business with less than 100 employees or a larger corporation?

Over 5k employees in ten different states and several countries.  We have a fleet of four Cessna Citation X jets at $20 million each.  

[XSIV4S]

14 minutes ago, PNWguy said:

Over 5k employees in ten different states and several countries.  We have a fleet of four Cessna Citation X jets at $20 million each.  

Yup, that's way to big for that kinda crap (Bad for morale and probably the stock holders).

[Batesmotel]

One company I worked for was bad about it. 3 of the 4 major stock owners had kids all about the same age. They all got mid management jobs right out of high school. 

We had three departments. Comercial sales, consumer sales and manufacturing. One of the kids got put in charge of manufacturing custom battery packs and wire harnesses. We had contracts with the military and NASA. He was an idiot and a klutz. He had no experience in manufacturing technology and couldn’t master basic assembly techniques with our tooling. So one weekend he tossed out some of our special tools and announced we were moving to a more artisan, hand crafted manufacturing process.

 

One kid was in charge of some of the commercial sales but wasn’t old enough to get a security clearance to go talk to anyone at Hill AFB. 

 

The place went from an industry leader that grungy place you go to because they might still have that one odd-ball electronics item in stock left over from the 80s. 

[nmgunshooter]

I work for LGS and its a great place to work! No problems with anyone and boos/owner is great. I must be lucky. This will be my last job as next year I will retire. Going to miss the place. With my military retirement and SS I should be in good shape but will miss the perks working for a LGS.

[Glockman97420]

It went away when the mom and pop company was sold to a corporation. 

[Gonzoso]

My last job was for a large family resort business where the owners have been expanding their families into management positions since the 40s. In 50 years I anticipate almost no management job not held by the family. 

[Gonzoso]

There is nepotism everywhere. You need to know people to get ahead that’s life. 

I moved to my area in January 2015 and knew no one, was related to no one in a small town.

It took me three years but I met people, networked, etc. I got a desireable great job and was nominated by a board, mostly on merit but I got some good references.

When my son is of age to work I’ve been meeting more people and they’ll have met him and I hope I can point him in the right direction to work hard and achieve greatness on his own merit.

What is happening at the ops place of employment sounds kind of toxic but that’s how the world works. There’s not much to be done about it.

This is how privilege works, those with connections get the best jobs and the rest of us have to have skills and work hard to achieve. 

[Wolfdad]

Not always the best way to run a company. It may foster loyalty in management but at the expense of competency, and a company can go downhill fast. It puts extra work on other management as well as upper management to see that things are followed up and work is completed; overall not a good thing. I`d rather have competent experienced managers.

[JTMac]

One of the facts of life that I've had to work to accept is that "it's who you know" isn't always bad.  If I was elected president tomorrow, there are certain jobs I would prefer to fill with a person that I know from experience that I can trust to get a job done.  

Nepotism at work can fill the same role.  And hey, if it's your business and you want your kids to inherit it, you have to train them somehow.  

I worked at a family owned company before, and the current president was indeed a family member.  It was a telecommunications company, but his first job involved a shovel.  It worked out:  He proved that was indeed capable of doing the jobs he transitioned through over the years,  earned the respect of his future employees, and gained the experience to run the company competently.  And, just as importantly to The Family who owned the company, he was accountable to them.

The problem comes when they can't do the job.  It is outright stupidity.  A lot of parents hand their kids the keys to their car, but how many do it without making them get a driver's license first?  How many of them will hand them the keys to the Porsche when they can't go a week without crashing the Corolla?  As much as we rely on capitalism to make rational decisions based on economic incentive, companies are still often run by idiots.  We just have to learn when to stand our ground and when to move on, and let the idiots shoot themselves i the foot.

[Boogieman]

When my employer's daughter came to work for him he had her apply to be my assistant.  As I moved up so did she.  12 years later she replaced me.  Now any time someone brings up nepotism either of them can tell tales of the 24 hr a day living hell I put her through.  The boss has a rule that relatives can't work directly for their kin.  Other than a personal/professional reference the relative has absolutely no input in the hiring process.

I love that guy.

 

[Appalachained]

I run a business for a man who has no kids. His wife however has Two nephews who she spoils. One of them came to work there. Three days later I fired him. I thought I was going to lose my job over it, but fortunately I didn’t. 

 I’m from Eastern KY and the county road crew there is all one big extended family.  This always pissed me off especially being in an area that had such few jobs.