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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this isn’t nepotism?

284 replies

Abergatwenty · 19/06/2018 18:36

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.

OP posts:
NeverTwerkNaked · 19/06/2018 19:01

Textbook nepotism. How could you think it was anything else?

extinctspecies · 19/06/2018 19:02

Is it nepotism if DH pays DS and a couple of his mates minimum wage to paint the outside of our house?

Oysterbabe · 19/06/2018 19:02

I don't see any issue with this.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 19/06/2018 19:03

How would you define nepotism, op, if you can't see this for what it is?!

NeverTwerkNaked · 19/06/2018 19:03

I say that as someone who undoubtedly benefitted from nepotism to get a start in the law.

I am acutely aware of it and always ensure all “foot in the door” type roles (work experience, temp jobs etc) are openly advertised.

HellenaHandbasket · 19/06/2018 19:05

Of course it is nepotism. It's sensible however in your circumstances etc and she was a bit nuts for getting angry about it, but it is pretty much a textbook definition of the word.

allthgoodusernamesaretaken · 19/06/2018 19:06

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 pre-supposes you know people who could help you to arrange a "decent work experience placement". Some don't

OP - for such a short term role, I don't have a problem with it, but of course this is nepotism.

Skarossinkplunger · 19/06/2018 19:07

Yep. Nepotism.

OrchidInTheSun · 19/06/2018 19:08

Unskilled two week jobs count for fuck all on most CVs. Unless you have a particularly inept interviewer, they'd suss out that was just something you got through your mum/dad/auntie Sue within moments.

The cost and time involved in advertising two weeks of grunt worth simply isn't worth it for most private companies where there is a ready supply of students who could do with a couple of quid.

NeverTwerk - your stance is admirable. Are you doing all that sifting and interviewing? Or are you imposing your beneficence on some poor hapless HR person in your firm?

SemperIdem · 19/06/2018 19:09

Of course it is nepotism.

Gilead · 19/06/2018 19:10

One wonders if the response would be the same were a child helping out on a milk round...

SemperIdem · 19/06/2018 19:16

Gilead

No, nor has it ever been.

ShirleyWilliams · 19/06/2018 19:17

Of course it's not nepotism. It's an unskilled temp job. The fact it's at a law firm is irrelevant.

KatnissMellark · 19/06/2018 19:21

Yes it's nepotism. You're just so privileged you don't see it.

midnightmisssuki · 19/06/2018 19:24

It is - but so what? This is done in so many places. It’s not illegal and probably saved the company time and money.

ScreamingValenta · 19/06/2018 19:25

Unless you have a particularly inept interviewer, they'd suss out that was just something you got through your mum/dad/auntie Sue within moments.

Unless you were a particularly inept interviewee, that wouldn't stop you using the job as an example of attention to detail, working accurately to a deadline, experience of whatever the two computer systems are; and working as part of a team.

SolidarityGdansk · 19/06/2018 19:25

I don’t see any issue with this.

Lethaldrizzle · 19/06/2018 19:27

So would it have been ok to offer your angry friend's daughter the job? So it's ok to benefit from a friendship but not a relation

Grilledaubergines · 19/06/2018 19:28

Yes it’s nepotism. But it’s not illegal and I defy anyone to say they wouldn’t do the same for their own child in the same circumstance.

This other mother is being ridiculous.

It’s a bit of minimum wage work, not a training contract and a corner office.

OrchidInTheSun · 19/06/2018 19:31

And yet Screaming, those of us who've interviewed graduate trainees know exactly how much you're going to learn in two weeks of work experience doing data inputting. I managed to spin my termtime job working at Sainsburys on the till to demonstrate the rest of those attributes.

Sitranced · 19/06/2018 19:31

Absolutely is nepotism.

PositiveVibez · 19/06/2018 19:33

Of course it's nepotism, but under those circs, I don't see an issue whatsoever.

ScreamingValenta · 19/06/2018 19:37

those of us who've interviewed graduate trainees know exactly how much you're going to learn in two weeks of work experience doing data inputting

Which would be more than you would learn during two weeks of not working at all; and more than someone who'd never had a data entry job.

extinctspecies · 19/06/2018 19:37

This pre-supposes you know people who could help you to arrange a "decent work experience placement". Some don't

That's kind of my point. DS1 had to get his work experience placement arranged through the school because we didn't have any contacts in the field he was interested in. DS2 is going to do work experience for his uncle's company in a completely different field.

I'd hope that interviewers can perceive those children who have probably benefited from a ready-made network, and those who have got their experience through initiative and hard work.

katmarie · 19/06/2018 19:38

This two week role might not be the star turn on someone's cv, but it is a stepping stone to the next thing, which may then turn out to be that awesome work experience which lands them their dream role. It is nepotism, and it does give these kids an advantage over those who don't have family members able to arrange work for them. Having said that I can see why it was done this way, it's quick and simple, and gets the job done. That doesn't make it fair though, and it definitely is nepotism.