What do you think of nepotism in business?

Question

Nepotism is where a company hires a person because they are a relative of an existing employee. In other words, if you and I were competing for a job and we were equally skilled, I would get the job because my father works at the company.

A recent story in the news at Yahoo! has a man complaining of nepotism at a mine in Newfoundland:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/16062007/3/canada-father-sees-nepotism-s-hiring-practices.html

My question to you is whether you feel it should be illegal. If so, how would you enforce that?

If two candidates were equally skilled, would it not make sense to choose the relative of an existing reliable employee, since you already know them and are hoping that this honesty and reliabilty is true of their whole family?

I thought this is how most businesses work, so I am not sure what recourse this fellow has. What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

I would agree that, if two applicants are equally skilled, it makes sense to hire the one you know assuming you know them to be honest and hard-working.

I'm sure that if a law were passed making it illegal to hire relatives or friends of existing employees, it would quickly be overturned by the courts.