To think this isn’t nepotism?

[Abergatwenty]

I work for the IT department of a solicitors firm in a large town. We are currently switching from one IT system to another - this means that we’re having to manually transfer a lot of data from the old system to the new.

To help us do this, we have eight 18-21 year olds (including my daughter) working for us for 2 weeks to do the transferring. They are all the children of various people who work for the firm - I just sent out an email asking if anyone had any uni student children home for the holidays who wanted a bit of summer work. We’re paying them minimum wage.

This afternoon in town I bumped into the mother of a girl who my daughter was at school with. She asked what my daughter was up to and I told her she was working at the solicitors with me for a couple of weeks. This mother got very angry about this and thought it wasn’t outrageous that we hadn’t “properly advertised” the jobs so that anyone could apply and had just asked our own kids.

AIBU? The work is time consuming but completely unskilled - we didn’t need to waste time shifting through CVs and A level results to find the most academic people. The only quality required is that we can trust them - we all trust our kids, and we don’t have time to conduct interviews.

Plus, given the number of applications that would come flooding in for anything that even resembles ‘legal work experience’, assessing each applicant and selecting 8 people would have probably taken longer than the actual data transfer job!

And it’s not like the work is going to lead to full time positions - it’s just a 2 weeks, unskilled, minimum wage summer job.

*WAS outrageous, sorry!

I don't think it is.

But hey, what do I know

Just ignore her

It is undoubtedly nepotism. They got those jobs because of who their parents are. And they will have a nice law firm name on their CV even if the work itself was unskilled.

Of course it's nepotism. But then lots of opportunities in life are about who you know.

It is undoubtedly nepotism. They got those jobs because of who their parents are. And they will have a nice law firm name on their CV even if the work itself was unskilled.

This, but without the disapproval that I sense (apologies if wrong, eurochick). It is nepotism, yes, but it was also the sensible thing to do.

You are definitely not BU! This other mother obviously has a 🐝 in her bonnet about something or other and dosnt understand the practicalities involved.
Forget her, she don’t matter a jot!

I don't think you were unreasonable to do it that way. But it is definitely nepotism.

Ignore her, she is jealous. why shouldn’t your daughter and the others get a bit of work experience and money. As you pointed out it’s a summer job, not a full time placement.

It is nepotism but are you actually bound by any rules which state that it isn't allowed. I assume you are a private firm not a public body.

I think it is nepotism. But I don't have a problem with it. Lots of people get opportunities due to their families and friends. Ignore her

Private companies/partnerships are under no obligation to "properly advertise" whatever she thinks that means anyway!

Ignore her. Also anyone who works in the legal field knows that a couple of weeks work in a law firm means diddly squat on a CV!

It's not 'illegal' in a public body, either - it's only a couple of weeks of temp work. It would be unreasonable to waste public money advertising, etc.

Of course it’s nepotism

You could have contacted a local college and found people that way. Takes a bit longer but ultimately you’ve gone for what you know.

That is just a microcosm of what happens in other sectors and it’s not great for people who want to break in.

That is just a microcosm of what happens in other sectors and it’s not great for people who want to break in

This isn’t going to help any of them get a job in law in any way. The job consists of copying and pasting. No law firm would be impressed by it. They’re all sitting in one room, and aren’t interacting with/shadowing any of the solicitors.

Of course it is nepotism! Almost the textbook definition. Not illegal of course. Probably sensible for you and the company, but I can see why it leaves a bad taste for families with less privilege than your own.

Solicitors are private firms so not bound by any of the many and various rules the state ties itself up with.

But, yes, what you have explained is actually the dictionary definition of nepotism.

However, it makes sense in a lot of ways, I suppose.

Good heavens! What were you thinking OP? And what were your employers thinking? Is this how they arrange training contracts too?

My God. Is this really the 21st century?

Yes it is nepotism & of course it is favourable work experience.

She is being unreasonable and so are you because she made you feel uncomfortable .

If you are sure yanbu why did you even post it

It absolutely is nepotism. Your children get the name of a law firm and some limited work experience on their cv because they are your children.

It may be nepotism but I do the same, we are busy in an area of our business and need some extra staff currently, we could use an agency and do sometimes but it’s minimum wage in a high employment area in the south east so the pool of ready candidates is not usually that big and we have had some shockers.

So I asked my DC who was still at uni if any of there friends were back for the summer yet and looking for work. It makes business sense and the temps at this time of year could be students we just cut out the agency fee.

It is nepotism, but she was UR for going up the wall about it.

But as my DC get older I realise how things favour those families who already have a foot in the door.

For example, if you want to apply for medicine (none of mine do btw) competition is so fierce that you don't stand a good chance unless you've had some relevant work experience.

Several of my family are doctors. I could arrange half a dozen different places without doing more than sending a bulk email out.
If you don't have that connection you're going to find it much harder.
If my DC spent half of every summer doing work experience which I could arrange for them with a click of a mouse, that would by admission departments put them above the student who has traveled round various places with a CV and managed a couple of days being a hospital porter because that was the best they could find despite looking hard.
Is that fair?

It's not really nepotism though.

Now that work experience has become practically compulsory after exams at school, it's perfectly normal for people to trawl their network of friends & family to sort out a decent work experience placement. It's certainly encouraged at DS's school.

This isn't really much different from that.

It's definitely nepotism.

Nepotism is commonplace.

It's unfair.

Life is unfair.

It might be unfair but it's not illegal, so it's the choice of your firm whether they want to do their tiny bit towards making life less unfair by e.g. (as a pp suggested) recruiting via a local college, or not.

Yeah you should have advertised the positions, selected a shortlist, interviewed the candidates over several weeks - and then given the job to your daughter and the others anyway.