The United Kingdom has for decades been placed on a pedestal and portrayed as the land of opportunity. With thousands of people flooding the cities looking for their career break, unfortunately for many, that moment won’t come. For a nation that likes to perpetuate this agenda that it operates on equality, diversity, and inclusion, there has been far too much cronyism and nepotism for this to be true.
Nepotism is when employers favour their family and friends over people with high qualifications, purely based on their relationship. Now although nepotism is not illegal under UK law, it is very unethical and furthers classism in the workplace. Now cronyism is very similar in definition but has more significance in terms of power. It is “the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications:” If these practices are allowed even at the slightest ignored in the workplace they can lead to the risk of breaching further employment laws.
Not to mention the impact they have on reinforcing, classism, and racism in places of work.
Classism is perpetuated by nepotism in the sense that middle-class bosses can actively choose to hand out jobs to their middle-class friends, instead of working-class ones who are better qualified. The same immoral rule applies to racism, employers can make the conscious decision to hire only their family members to stop any form of racial diversity in the workplace. On a more trivial note, nepotism leads to a lack of morale in the workplace, poor employee satisfaction and damage to the company's reputation.
Nepotism is not personal to just one sector, it happens across the entire spectrum, from creative jobs to labour work. A 2016 study by CV-Library found that in the UK, two-thirds of workers have “experienced nepotism in the workplace, with 27.9% witnessing under qualified candidates being hired for jobs because they were favoured.” Since then we have seen our very leaders practice cronyism, with government officials and the former PM Boris Johnson handing out crony COVID-19 contracts worth millions. Talk about setting an example.
Although, nepotism is not exclusive to any one field of work. It is vastly more common in some industries than others, and one of those is the creative industry. Speaking from personal experience, a huge part of the creative sector in the UK operates on a ‘who do you know?’ basis. If you know the right people, you’ll get the right opportunities, kind of vibe. Mind you, a lot of these job opportunities will be offered in informal settings, at an industry party or over a cocktail. A study by Debrett’s Foundation, found that 7 out of 10 young people in the UK got their first jobs through family connections.
While working-class people make up 39% of the UK workforce, only 23% of those in the creative sector are from lower socio-economic backgrounds, as opposed to the 57% coming from professional family backgrounds. So the creative industry is really not as diverse as it seems.
Young people are being left discouraged and working endless hours at dead-end jobs to pursue their dreams, to then not be awarded the opportunity they deserve. While young people born into wealth or simply into ‘right’ families are being handed careers on a silver platter. Now, I’m not saying rich kids are to blame, after all, they have no control over what family they are born into and no one can fault them for grabbing an opportunity when it arises. Although it would help if they could acknowledge the unfairness that is being reinforced.
Having said that, the real issue lies within the practices of nepotism and cronyism themselves. A poll by Milkround, which interviewed both graduates and HR professionals, found that “while the majority (59%) of employers think their organisations are doing enough to recruit a diverse workforce, two-thirds (66%) of students and graduates do not believe companies employ a truly diverse workforce.” Until employers, companies, and governments recognise what they are doing, and how it impacts the UK workforce, these practices will be allowed to continue and cause further detriment.
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