Elevating Competence Over Connections in Public Service
Feb 04, 2024Season 1Episode 10
Harriet West-Moore
Have you ever watched, with a mix of frustration and disbelief, as a colleague sails into a role they're clearly unprepared for, leaving you to wonder if it's not what you know, but who you know that counts? That's the simmering question at the heart of our latest episode on the Women in Public Safety podcast, where we tackle the thorny issue of nepotism and its impact on workplace morale and service quality. I'm Harry Westmore, and this week, I'm taking a personal approach, sharing stories and listener experiences that highlight the challenges and disappointments when familial ties trump merit in the job sphere.
No guest joins me this time, because this is a conversation that calls for an unfiltered look into the inequities that can riddle our workplaces. What does it mean for our teams when trust is undermined by unfair hiring practices? How can we, as dedicated professionals, navigate a landscape where connections often weigh more than qualifications? These are the questions that guide our talk, as we seek to uncover strategies to ensure that hard work and expertise are recognized and rewarded. This episode is an invitation to join a frank discussion on fostering an environment where professionalism is paramount and meritocracy isn't just an ideal, but a reality.
Have you ever watched, with a mix of frustration and disbelief, as a colleague sails into a role they're clearly unprepared for, leaving you to wonder if it's not what you know, but who you know that counts? That's the simmering question at the heart of our latest episode on the Women in Public Safety podcast, where we tackle the thorny issue of nepotism and its impact on workplace morale and service quality. I'm Harry Westmore, and this week, I'm taking a personal approach, sharing stories and listener experiences that highlight the challenges and disappointments when familial ties trump merit in the job sphere.
No guest joins me this time, because this is a conversation that calls for an unfiltered look into the inequities that can riddle our workplaces. What does it mean for our teams when trust is undermined by unfair hiring practices? How can we, as dedicated professionals, navigate a landscape where connections often weigh more than qualifications? These are the questions that guide our talk, as we seek to uncover strategies to ensure that hard work and expertise are recognized and rewarded. This episode is an invitation to join a frank discussion on fostering an environment where professionalism is paramount and meritocracy isn't just an ideal, but a reality.
Hello, hello, hello. This is Harry Westmore with the Women in Public Safety podcast. Welcome back to another episode. Another week, another episode. This is episode number 10. Before we get into today's topic, I want to invite everybody who's listening on YouTube to hit that like share and subscribe. I want to get the algorithms going. I'm hoping to get more people to follow and become more subscribed members of the podcast on YouTube. So please, if you will hit that like share and subscribe. Also, if you're on listening by audio which is on Spotify, ihurry any other podcast platforms also please like the podcast. So I really appreciate the support. Thank you. All right, I'm going to jump right on into it.
Speaker 1:
This topic today actually came out of a request for a listener who listened to one of the prior episodes that I've had, and they sent me a quick comment and wanted to talk about what meaning to talk about this particular subject, which I've. You know, it's a very great subject and is a very needed and most common subject, and this is called nepotism in the workplace and how to challenge them. I mean, this goes across all types of jobs, not just for people who work in public safety or human services profession. This is just any type of job, that is, you know that you work. Any type of job place that you work is nepotism. And for those who don't know what nepotism actually is, it's basically a workplace that refers to the practicing of favoring relatives or friends by giving them jobs. It's a form of favoritism that's based on relationships rather than the merits of their qualifications, and it occurs, like I said, in any type of workplace setting private, public sectors, organizations and governmental agencies. So I'm going to hone it down to particularly how nepotism affects those who work in public safety or human services field.
Speaker 1:
I've seen a lot of nepotism all the time in my job, on my job, and you know the main issue is you, these individuals who are related to somebody, who's related to somebody or who knows them personally, are given positions that they are sent, may or, essentially, are not qualified for. But because there's somebody's daughter or somebody's son or somebody's niece, uncle, cousin, brother, sister, they get the job and with that, how does that affect us as other you know staff and employees? Well, it compromises the skills and qualifications because if they don't know what they're doing on that job, it causes a lot of problems when you're given directives from somebody who doesn't know. You know anything, but they just, you know, happen to be in that position because of who they know and so forth. So it also undermines the quality of service given to the, to the public, and it's a crucial. It's a crucial point as far as gaining our trust with the public. But the public can't trust us because we're, you know, a lot of people are put in positions because of who they know or who they're related to. It's not because based on qualifications or their skills or their professionalism, and it does create a bad morale for everybody else.
Speaker 1:
And I know for a fact. You know it's like what's the point of even applying for a position? And, because I've come to that point, what's the point of applying? I know that I'm qualified and a lot of the open positions that I have was interested in and applying. I knew I was qualified for it, I knew I was probably overqualified, to be honest, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:
But you don't get an interview. But the next thing, you know, you see someone that you know good and well who shouldn't have gotten that position. Next thing, you know they're now in that position. How did they? You know why, when you know, you know them, maybe you know them personally and know their work ethic or lack there of, and but then they are giving the position. You know, at least I would want a opportunity to show my skills and get an interview and, to you know, sell myself and it's why I feel like I'm qualified for the job. But if you don't even get an interview and but then somebody else does not only get an interview, they actually get the job, you know, or let's put it this way, they go through the interview and I'm saying air quotes just for it go through the process, but they already know they have the job Right, they already know they're going to put that person in the position. But, you know, to keep up, you know, try to go through correct protocol. You know they'll have that interview, you know.
Speaker 1:
And so what does that do for the rest of us? Rest of us who are, you know, definitely qualified or definitely and wants to advance in our careers? But, you know, feel like, why, why should we? Why should we? And I personally am not the person that I Don't brown nose, I don't kiss anybody's behind, I don't suck up to any supervisors or anything like that just to, hopefully, to hope that I get, you know, promoted.
Speaker 1:
I've always I guess I'm old school, old old school. Now it's taught. You know you Work for what you achieve. You got to work for it and you got to earn it and and I've always had that belief. It had that ethical attitude, which is why I'm probably not where I'm gonna know. I'm not gonna be ever gonna be in a supervisory position or anything you know higher than that, especially when you know, when you're working in agencies public agencies, private agencies, such as in law enforcement or Human services or anything like that A lot of it is so political.
Speaker 1:
You have to deal with the politics and I just don't play politics. I just don't do that. I go with my morals and integrity and I feel that I try to. You know show what I can do based on my experience, based on my profession. You know my professional background, my education and Other skills that I have. You know went out on my own to make the initiative to do professional development. I feel that you know qualified for the position but it doesn't matter. A lot of times it does not matter and also Nepotism creates potential for conflict of interest.
Speaker 1:
You know the impartiality and objectivity of employees are paramount. You know that's very important. It leads to Personal relationship that may influence professional decisions. Because you have a close relationship with that person. You can't make professional decisions based on your Personal relationship. It's like husband and wife. You know they, you know the wife might have gotten promoted but you know, and the husband is involved in the same department or whatever. They may have different Jobs but they may have to go against each other on certain Issues according to their position. And If you don't make the right Professional decision for the good of the whole department, you know you're or your favoring one, favoring towards your partner or whoever, knowing that it's not good for the position that you're in, for the department, then you know it's a conflict of interest. And you know not only that. I mean I guess you know the obvious is a legal and ethical concerns.
Speaker 1:
You know a lot of opinions are raised that, especially when you work in a public sector, that legal ethics comes into play, which is why we go, we all, every year we have to do these online learnings, e-learnings of you know different courses that we have to do every single year the same, and they're usually the same courses, the same format and everything the same videos, but we have to do it in one of the main course that we have to you know, actually mandatory to do is called is ethics. You know, when you're working in a public agency, especially governmental agencies, it's all about the public's trust, and you have to learn ethics. What is ethical, what can you do, what you cannot do, that is considered ethic or unethical. But at the same time, we're required to know this but it still happens anyway. It still happens anyway. You know they're just do it. I mean they do it behind doors and and in the way they do it they go through the correct protocol, so-called protocol. But I mean we internally know how this person gained their position and but you know, we have to understand that there are a lot of ethics, ethical situations that you just can't cross the line, but it's done anyway. So you know what do you say?
Speaker 1:
So how do we challenge it? How do we challenge these? Well, if you're in a union, you can also I mean that you know that's the obvious is grieve, grieve, the file, grievances, whatever will come out of it, you know who knows, but I mean, at the least it does raise the alarm if you file a grievance, if you're a unionized organization. But and it also comes from policies, from HR. By implementing these strict and enforce these hiring policies, that that will deter nepotism. Organizations that have clear, transparent and fair hiring practices and prioritize qualifications and experience over personal relationships that's ideal. I'm also promoting a cultural of meritocracy meritocracy which is encouraging a culture where performance or qualifications are valued above all, which can help mitigate the effects of nepotism. We also have whistleblower protections. Now that you know, that's an interesting view of whistleblowers. That's a whole other topic and I may do a whole podcast segment about whistleblowing. Also, it's suggested for regular audits and reviews. Regular audits and reviews of hiring practices in workplace culture can help identify and address nepotism head-on. Those are some of the some of the ways to address it head-on and challenge nepotism.
Speaker 1:
Call it out. Call it out for what it is, I know, for us in law enforcement. You know you do have a union and you can grieve it, whether, like I said earlier, just whether what are, the outcome is in your favor or not. The fact that you brought it up and you know, keep a paper trail. I always encourage everybody to keep a paper trail, keep document, because documentation is everything. You see things going on and you did your due diligence to follow protocol and the issue is still not resolved. You still document it because see what's the saying, if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen, right? So document the issue, document what steps you took, the right protocol, the people that you went to to address the issue, and the outcome of that issue, whether positive or negative, document it. So if it's come to a point to where you're grieving something, especially when it comes to nepotism, you can give an actual date and throw a file, civil rights lawsuit, eeoc. There's different legal remedies that you can go through for that. If it gets to that, really that bad, and that you know to that point You're being, you know that's another address issue to address later on.
Speaker 1:
But we all go through nepotism. We all have experienced it in some form. We can always say, well, this is how it is, it is what it is and you know you don't do anything or you do something, and if it's not addressed properly, at least you did your part. Not saying anything is not you know it's nothing going to happen if you don't say anything, and even if you do say something it doesn't happen. At least you know in your heart of hearts that you did what you could do. So. Don't ever feel that you should just sit back and just take up and take it. Utilize the steps that are available to you.
Speaker 1:
Still apply for positions, even though you might know in your heart and you know I'm gonna get this visit, but you never know. You never know who is actually watching and you never know when people sees what's going on and is tired of it and they themselves are watching and they are trying to address the problem in their own section, in their own way, in their own area. And, like I said, you can always, always challenge. Challenge if you don't get an interview when you know that you are qualified for the position and you know that whoever so-and-so received that position, challenge personnel. Well, why did they? You know, I have them pull up, they can pull their criteria of how they come up to decide to choose their candidate and if they can't justify why, you know, legally justify why they did not even give you an interview but this person received that position and they can compare the qualifications, there you go. You can definitely challenge that, definitely challenge it. So that's.
Speaker 1:
I thought that was a very interesting topic the viewer and the listener who gave me this suggestion to talk about because it is very, very common, especially in our profession. So there you have it. Definitely wanna hear your feedback, definitely wanna hear stories. If you personally have experienced it, definitely wanna hear from you and how did you handle your situation. You can email me at publicsafetybywomenatgmailcom or you can comment. If you're listening by YouTube, please put the comments below and tell me your story. And if you have any other suggestions, I welcome any other topics of suggestions for us to discuss. I'll be more than happy to accommodate and you know, because there's so many stories, there's so many issues that we could talk about in our profession. So I wanna hear directly from you what type of topics would you like me to discuss in our episode? All right, this is episode number 10. You guys, stay safe. I'll talk to you next week and be blessed and not stressed. All right, peace, q-t אחra or. Thanks for watching, guys.