Ethical?

[inhotep]

A manager hires her daughter as supervisor in her department. The manager works for a public university where her daughter goes to school. Her daughter's position, which supervises student employees, became official when her mom cannot find a qualified candidate. She has been working in her mom's department for couple of years prior to becoming a supervisor.

Are there any ethical concerns?

 

[BigJ]

There are concerns.

Is she qualified for the position?

 

[Aluvus]

Concerns yes, problems not necessarily. If the daughter is qualified and was given the position based on merit, in a fair manner, then there is nothing ethically wrong with that. If she was given preferential treatment, that is a problem.

Many people choose to avoid these types of situations because they create the appearance of impropriety, which means someday someone may complain.

Appropriately enough, 2 recent Dilberts have been about a related topic.

 

[Ruptga]

I wouldn't say there's anything necessarily wrong here, but it does deserve a second look. Sometimes the best person for the job is family, which is fine by me, the hard part is being certain that's the real reason she was given the job. But, the facts that she's been worked in the department for several years and they did look for someone else first isn't exactly damning evidence against them. I don't think there's any way to "know for certain" that there isn't something fishy going on here, but then again I can't be 100% certain I'm not living in the matrix either. Find somebody that knows the mom and daugther well, someone you trust to tell it to you straight, and ask them if it doesn't seem right to them, their answer would probably be good enough for me.

 

[se7en]

If manager couldn't find a qualified canidate then that means daughter who got the job did not apply right?

Can you even hire someone for a job when they haven't applied or interviewed? If it was her own company then sure but a public university I am sure has policies.

 

[olds]

If here mom is her immediate supervisor, then yes. If not, no.

 

[inhotep]

I'm a student employee working in the department in question.
To sum it up, I wish she get off of my nuts. She think it is acceptable for me to do extra work while she does her homework at work. She tries to macro-manage me. For instance, I was taking a bite of ricecrispy treat then she tells me "we are still enforcing the eating in breaking room rule." It is freaking ricecripy, not a bucket of fried chicken! She tells her mom that when she talks to me I don't make good eye contact. I shit you not. Her mom then met with me to question how I don't have good eye contact. She says things like, "you have to stand up to greet the visitor when someone is signing in," and when I go take a leak she would say shit like you have to tell someone you are stepping out of the office. She drives me nuts. What is worse, she is my manager's daughter. This is a public university, not some private company. If this is a private company then fine. If there are any disagreements that can be resolved between the student employees, like work hours, she goes to her mom who then talks to me. It is like her mom is shielding her, or she uses her mom as a shield.
I miss my old supervisor who left because she graduated.
God, my plan was to stay in this dept to gain good experience but now that she is the supervisor I'm considering a transfer, to another school as well.
Is she qualified? I'd say she meets the requirements.
Man the point of going to college is also to get away from your parents.
This school has 28000 students and they cannot find someone qualified who's willing to take the supervisor job. ok...

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: inhotep
I'm a student employee working in the department in question.
To sum it up, I wish she get off of my nuts. She think it is acceptable for me to do extra work while she does her homework at work. She tries to macro-manage me. For instance, I was taking a bite of ricecrispy treat then she tells me "we are still enforcing the eating in breaking room rule." It is freaking ricecripy, not a bucket of fried chicken! She tells her mom that when she talks to me I don't make good eye contact. I shit you not. Her mom then met with me to question how I don't have good eye contact. She says things like, "you have to stand up to greet the visitor when someone is signing in," and when I go take a leak she would say shit like you have to tell someone you are stepping out of the office. She drives me nuts. What is worse, she is my manager's daughter. This is a public university, not some private company. If this is a private company then fine. If there are any disagreements that can be resolved between the student employees, like work hours, she goes to her mom who then talks to me. It is like her mom is shielding her, or she uses her mom as a shield.
I miss my old supervisor who left because she graduated.
God, my plan was to stay in this dept to gain good experience but now that she is the supervisor I'm considering a transfer, to another school as well.
Is she qualified? I'd say she meets the requirements.
Man the point of going to college is also to get away from your parents.
This school has 28000 students and they cannot find someone qualified who's willing to take the supervisor job. ok...

So file a complaint with the HR Department.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: minendo
So file a complaint with the HR Department.

Oh snap! New title?

 

[bluestrobe]

Do you know if the daughter and mom made it a point NOT to find anyone else who is qualified? With what you said I would be hitting the HR department in short time. This kind of thing is why I am against nepotism in the work place.

 

[Wuffsunie]

It's called nepotism and from what you're saying of her behavior, could very well be what's going on.

Start keeping a log of times when she makes you do extra hours while doing her own work, instances where it looks like she's using mommy to shield her, really anything that negatively impacts you where she can't hide behind a rule book (the rice crispy thing, if it's on the books about eating only in the break room, would not be something to include) . When you have a fair amount of it gathered, go to HR with it, and tell them you can't go to her immediate supervisor due to that supervisor being her mother and thus part of the whole problem.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: inhotep

A manager hires her daughter as supervisor in her department. The manager works for a public university where her daughter goes to school. Her daughter's position, which supervises student employees, became official when her mom cannot find a qualified candidate. She has been working in her mom's department for couple of years prior to becoming a supervisor.

Are there any ethical concerns?

ethical? no?

appearance problem? YES

no matter how hard the daughter works the 1st few years, she'll always be known as being hired by her mom.

and if she screws up, she is SCREWED. she'll definitely be thought of as the underqualfied person who got the job only because of her mom.

never accept positions working directly for a relative or friend, unless you are a screwup and dont care being known as only getting the job because of that person.

 

[inhotep]

I looked through few ethics code on nepotism on my schools website and it looks like they found couple of loopholes.
The code states that university staff cannot participate in hiring a member of his or her immediate family but it does not mention what kind of employee. Example: "employee" maybe classified as permanent but not including "student" employee.
Also, she could have coordinated her boss and one of the head student employee supervisors to hire her daughter as supervisor and also who reports directly to her mom.

My school's nepotism code:
"No member of the unclassified staff my participate, formally or informally, in the decision to hire, retain, grant tenure to, promote or determine the salary of a member of his or her immediate family, including domestic partners or other living together as a family. No member of the unclassified staff may give preferential or favored treatment in the supervision or management of a member of his or her immediate family, including domestic partners or other living together as a family."

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Every major company I've ever worked for had specific policies that barred such things. You were not allowed to be the supervisor of a relative or bf/gf/spouse. It's just common sense. And especially if that relation is in a supervisory position under you. They have no credibility with the people they manage because the potential is high for those people to look up and think "you only have this job because you're so and so's relation." In some instances (where you're managing a bf/gf/spouse) it can also lead to legal issues such as sexual harrassment suits. (She got promoted over me because they sleep together, etc)

I'm surprised the university allowed this to happen.

 

[Capt Caveman]

:camera:'s

 

[inhotep]

You'd think her mom would avoid any possible ethical issues by not only having her daughter working under her in the first place but also hiring her as a supervisor who oversees other student employees.

You'd also think that her daughter would avoid any possible ethical issues by not holding a position that not only report directly to her mom but supervises other students.

So the chain of command goes like this: student employees report to the student supervisor who reports directly to her mom. WTF?

It is possible that one or both of them don't see anything wrong with this, or they don't care. Since this issue is in the context of a university, what is she learning?

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: inhotep
It is possible that one or both of them don't see anything wrong with this, or they don't care. Since this issue is in the context of a university, what is she learning?

They probably don't care.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: inhotep
You'd think her mom would avoid any possible ethical issues by not only having her daughter working under her in the first place but also hiring her as a supervisor who oversees other student employees.

You'd also think that her daughter would avoid any possible ethical issues by not holding a position that not only report directly to her mom but supervises other students.

So the chain of command goes like this: student employees report to the student supervisor who reports directly to her mom. WTF?

It is possible that one or both of them don't see anything wrong with this, or they don't care. Since this issue is in the context of a university, what is she learning?

My guess is that it never even occurred to the daughter... she's a kid who probably doesn't know any better. She's just happy to have the job.

Mom either doesn't care, doesn't see what the fuss is about OR is a hard core, fully entrenched, unionized public employee who is impossible to fire and feels like she can do anything she wants.

I'd guess the latter...

 

[inhotep]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Mom either doesn't care, doesn't see what the fuss is about OR is a hard core, fully entrenched, unionized public employee who is impossible to fire and feels like she can do anything she wants.

I'd guess the latter...

Omg, thanks for bring this up. What I have heard from some permanent staffs here, the non-academic (and some academics) employees do have the "unionized public employee who is impossible to fire" mentality. I'm shocked to see and hear some of the behavior and performance issues that exists here. Man, you'd think that if you have an office job in a university you don't need to be in a union. I work mostly with the non-academic university employees and I do see such mentality. I have worked for "successful" private companies before coming back to school and some shitty mentalities coming from non-unionized employees in large and small corporations shocked me. I don't know what to think anymore.

Many students complain about the increasing cost of tuition. Well, how about getting rid of the obsolete, unnecessary positions? Why do they still have people whose job is to click mouse buttons? And I literally mean clicking buttons. This is just in my department.

I have been considering transfer to a private school for a while.. I'm really going to transfer now.

 

[kinev]

Nepotism