This is why we all should encourage nepotism

Those of you who follow either Bollywood news or Trump administration’s news closely, would by now be aware of the new found favorite word of the media covering these stories- Nepotism.

Ever since Kangana Ranaut appeared on Karan Johar’s chat show and accused him of being the epitome of nepotism, plenty was spoken, discussed and analysed. Karan Johar in his weekly column with a TV channel shared his views on being subjected to criticism like that, and openly confessed to favoring celebrity kids. He wasn’t apologetic about it at all.

And why should he.

Nepotism is omnipresent.

For starters, the meaning of the word nepotism is the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.

In my corporate experience, we had to meet candidates every now and then, not because of their suitability for an open position but because of their reference. Some we had to hire, and with others, we could evaluate (provided we give a detailed explanation as to why the person is not suited for a job). And most references were not from the CEO’s office, but from government officials, who obviously claimed to have much more claim in our privately-owned company than anybody else.

Now when Ivanka Trump is becoming assistant to the President, the US media is shouting about nepotism, whereas in our everyday life, we see when bosses shift jobs, they take their trusted lieutenants with them. When you take up job responsibilities which expect you to perform as per certain standards, you want to have your best team with you, it’s natural. No wonder Donald Trump calls the media biased.

When your elderly neighbour walks into your house with a CV of their son, you want to help that person out because you can, because you have a certain established network which can give this person his first job. Whether he succeeds in it or not is his potential and hard work.

Even with all the forced interviews and hiring we had to do, there were some real bright spots that emerged, who managed to climb up corporate ladder because of their work and not because of the reference that got them their first job. Yes, on the flip side we had to deal with severe under performance and frequent role changes for individuals whom we couldn’t fire, but such cases weed out naturally. They also know they are not meant for this role, and hence use their reference to get into some other company.

We are guilty of nepotism everyday, each one of us. When we hire our maid’s daughter as her successor and not scan the market for the complete pool of available maids, we are guilty. When we call our ex-boss to help us with a job search, we are guilty. When we pass around our cousin’s CV for an internship, we are guilty. When we recommend a friend’s eatery as the only good place to eat, we are guilty.

If our network can’t depend on us when they need help, then what’s the use of investing in relationships?

Why would we want to go out and extend our search for a possible role fitment, when we know a phone call to a known person could line up people on my gate? Whether they have the talent to do the job or secondary, and that’s the risk that every individual carry with him, but why waste time in sourcing, when that’s available in front of our eyes?

I am aware that even if there is an internal candidate available, Google still goes out to external candidates to be fair to the pool of available candidates for a job. I am also aware the number of companies which gives preference to internal candidates for an open position is much more.

The way we use a word determines its negativity or positivity. Nepotism is not something we should be guilty of or even accuse someone of. In fact I would say, you should be as nepotist as you could, your circle of people need you to help them.