My Boss Hired His Kid for the Job I Deserved. Is That Fair?

Q For the past 10 years, I've worked for a small insurance agency with
only eight employees. The office manager retired not long ago, and I
should have been considered for the job. Instead, the owner gave it to
his daughter, a recent college graduate who knows very little about
insurance. He says he gave his daughter the job because she will inherit
the business someday and she needs the experience. I don't think this is
fair. Do you?

ANSWER Nepotism stinks, but it isn't always unethical. When a person
owns a small business, he has the right to operate it in the best
interests of his family. After all, it is his business, and one of the
great satisfactions of owning a business is being able to bring your
children into it. What's unethical is encouraging employees to believe
that the business is a meritocracy when, in fact, family comes first.

So if your boss promised you a shot at office manager or otherwise led
you to believe your prospects at the firm were boundless, he has indeed
treated you unfairly. But if you took it for granted that only merit
mattered, you were, sad to say, simply mistaken.

Either way, the owner probably owes you a consolation prize, so now
might be a good time to ask for a raise. More fundamentally, however,
the handwriting is on the wall: Your career at this agency is at the
mercy of the owner's plans for his family, and it's time for you to look
for another job, one where the principal criterion for advancement is
the quality of your work. Good luck.


Questions about money and ethics? Our ethicists are consultants who
advise attorneys on people's ethical beliefs. E-mail them at
right_thing@moneymail.com.


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