Hiring your own family: nepotism or compassion? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works to c/general@lemmy.world

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There's a shocking amount of small companies where a sizable proportion of the workers are family of the owner. The most perplexing example was a tax consultant whose 4 employees were his wife, his daughter, his son-in-law and his sister.

I've often looked down upon this and have been quick to label it as nepotism, but if I was in a position to hire someone, wouldn't I prioritize someone I care about who was suffering to find acceptable working conditions in the labor market? Then again, this attitude generates a self-perpetuating problem where people can't access to job openings through their own merits and meritocracy, because the family members of the company owner can't find a job through their own merits and meritocracy.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It's not nepotism unless you pass over a chance for a good employee to advance, because you promote family.

Overall hiring family and friends has its negatives - you can't really seperate work from personal life. As a business owner, you may need to have "a tough talk" with the employee, or even fire them. Doing that to a family member brings up emotional baggage and can result in broken connections. Overall it's rarely worth the trouble, maybe a part time position that's not critical would be.

The advantages to hiring family members would be trust - if you work out of your home, with family you know who you are dealing with. With a rando off the street, who knows if your console goes missing, or an expensive machine gets stolen.

this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023

23 points (82.9% liked)

General Discussion

11946 readers

1 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy.World General!

This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.

🪆 About Lemmy World

🧭 Finding Communities

Feel free to ask here or over in: !lemmy411@lemmy.ca!

Also keep an eye on:

For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse!

💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:

!actual_discussion@lemmy.ca - Note this is for more serious discussions.
!casualconversation@lemm.ee - The opposite of the above, for more laidback chat!
!letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk - Into video games? Here's a place to discuss them!
!movies@lemm.ee - Watched a movie and wanna talk to others about it? Here's a place to do so!
!politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world - Want to talk politics apart from political news? Here's a community for that!

Rules

Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.

0. See: Rules for Users.

No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to !fediverse@lemmy.world or !lemmydrama@lemmy.world communities.
No Ads/Spamming.
No NSFW content.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Jessica@lemmy.world

ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world

fubo@lemmy.world