Warren Is Proud of His Nepotism

Special guest Haley discussing Nepotisim.

Haley is the star of the recruiting video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ALNl4JA_ac

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Announcer 0:03

Had you actually read the email, you would know that the podcast you are about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content. These HR experts' views are not representative of their past, present, or future employers. If you've ever heard, my manager is unfair to me, I need you to reset my HR portal password, or can I right up my employee for crying too much? Welcome to our little table. Welcome to JR.

Warren 0:52

This is how I take stuff. Take three. Welcome to JadedHRTA Podcast by one HR professional, one very super special guest, where we're here saying all the things you want to say throughout the workday, but say them out loud. I'm Warren.

Haley 1:08

And I'm Haley.

Warren 1:11

All right. As you heard, we have a very super special guest with us today, Haley. Through the past three plus years of JDHR, we've been very honored to have awesome and incredible guests, such as attorneys like John Hyman and David Mickless. We've had influencers like Jan Janderson, Jasmine and Christina from Baked HR, Ashley from BoozyHR, and any number of other guests who were awesome and great. But this was one I'm very, very much looking forward to. After a year or two of asking and asking and asking and being told no, no, no. I finally shot a text message to her. I don't know if it was today or yesterday, but said, Hey, you want to come on the show? And she said, sure. And so finally we have my daughter, Haley, not to be confused with Hallie, our original JR rock star who supports us on Patreon. So if you want to support the show, please do. You can support us on Patreon like Halley. You can buy us a beer. All the ways to support us are in the show notes, but you can also leave us a review. It's been a few months since we've had a review. We need some more reviews. That's a great way for people to find us. And also, of course, share the show. But before we get started, I wanted to introduce Haley to everybody and interview her a little bit, ask her some questions. So, first question is the most difficult. Am I the funniest, coolest, most awesomest dad ever?

Haley 2:36

Absolutely not.

Warren 2:40

Okay. But I guess I will do every once in a while. Like Feathers and I, Haley attended East Carolina University and just graduated in May of 22. And she's on a stellar path, career path right now. And she just landed a new job where, for the first time ever in her life, she is responsible for supervising other people. While she's not in HR, she's getting a wild taste of that. So really, really, really proud of her. But yeah, our our topic is nepotism today, and having my daughter on the show is perfect for nepotism. So I've talked about on the show before that we work together at the water park, but I'll get to that in a little bit. But I I was thinking through my 24-year HR career, and all the times I've encountered nepotism. And when most of the most of the time when you think about nepotism, you think of the boss's kid who can't who comes in, only got the job because of their kid, they're a slack ass, they can't do dilly crap and things along those lines, and they're just there wasting space and making money that other people could be making. I've never really encountered it to that degree as an HR person. I've counted out, I think I said 13 cases in my career that of nepotism. So I was just going to hit a few of them, but only one was not a good situation. The others were were sort of fine. So I worked at a CPA firm earlier in my career, and one of the partners at that firm sent me a resume, and then I called to follow up on the resume. I really like this resume. And they said, Well, this is my son, and I'd like to get him a job at not even the same location. They lived in different locations, in a different location from where they were. I'm like, okay. And the resume was actually a really good resume, great college, great, great GPA. The CPA firm, when we hired people, we love to hire people with three to four years of what at the time was called a big four firm experience. They had that. So I just forwarded it to the partners of the office where they wanted to work, and I didn't mention it was uh another partner's son, and they probably they may have knew or known, I don't know. But a person ended up getting hired in the duration of my career at that firm, uh, I think they did it very, very well. But they had different last names, and I don't think it was really widely known, besides a few people, that there was a familiar relationship there. I also worked at a law firm for a few years, quite a few years, I guess you'd say, and multiple, multiple instances of nepotism. Then I worked at another place and managed it level and position in our company, pushed through and got hired without me, the recruiter, their son. Their son got into an entry-level position, which they were honestly in hindsight qualified for, but they they just didn't work out. And knowing what I knew about the person through their parent, I knew that they were a hot mess to begin with, and but they did not end up spending too much time with us. So that uh that was sort of the only negative example of nepotism I had. Now, a funny story, there were multiple. It was a single person owner for the the company, and we had multiple, multiple people who were family members of the employee. However, they had different last names. And so not everybody knew it was actually initially a pretty tight secret of who was related to the owner, and uh one of the people rose through the ranks and became a high-level management position pretty quickly, and honestly, they fully deserved it. But add to that, when their son, when the owner's son graduated from college himself, they hired him into straight into management with straight out of college. So not, you know, it burned a lot of people's butts. And this one was publicly known, they had the same last name that it was it was a nepotism type situation. And just as soon as it was announced, people were butthurt over, over, oh, they're hiring it's just nepotism. Well, in the time that I was remaining there, they really proved themselves, and it was not just nepotism, but they they were really honestly knocking it out of the park. And and then other nepotism situations I've had to deal with have just been, you know, only one time, you know, I mentioned the one employee who didn't last that long, and I don't know the whole circumstances around that. But there was one time where someone who had the same last name as the owner, and everybody knew it was it was their child. I will say they came to a mutual agreement to leave the company. They were a great individual contributor. They got promoted into a lead position. Once again, they were a great lead position. Then they were promoted, and as usual, they were promoted into a management position, and that's where the wheels came off the cart. They had no, they couldn't do the administrative tasks of managing, they couldn't keep budgets, they couldn't keep on task, they couldn't do a lot of the other things that managers have to do. So it it came to a mutual decision for them to to leave. And as far as I know, there's still an individual contributor doing the same thing elsewhere, and they were fabulous at it. I I can say firsthand, but just couldn't get the grasp of management. But that whole backstory brings us to why have Haley on the podcast. So uh you don't have to act all cutesy. We're it's not video, it's we're videoing, but it's audio. It's a podcast, only audio, not Joe Rogan.

Haley 8:27

Hey, there's some video ones.

Warren 8:30

Yeah, there are. But by the way, have you ever listened to an episode of our podcast?

Haley 8:36

All I've heard was the Christmas story with the little rhyme, but that's about it.

Warren 8:44

Okay, so one out of 105 episodes. So anyhow, anyhow. So I, as I've mentioned before, I was HR director at a water park. And at that time, Haley was looking for her very first job. So what do I do? I hire my daughter. And here's a little interesting side note. I intended for her to be the very first person I hired when I got to the water park. And she and her two best friends, Ebony and Gabby, came in and I met with, of course, Haley first. I was going to hire her first, but she didn't bring her I-9 documentation after being explicitly told to bring her I-9 documentation. But her two best friends, Ebony and Gabity, brought their documentation, and they were the first two people I hired there rather than my own daughter. And it she only even think you were in the top ten as it took you like two days to come in with that to finally bring that stuff in after I told you what to do. But anyway, so tell uh you uh okay, you worked at the water park for two years. I only worked there for one. I could manage my two teenagers, I could not manage 400 teenagers, and so I decided that that was not the best place for me. So tell us a little bit about your experience in terms of nepotism and jobs while you the first year while we worked together.

Haley 10:20

The first year at the water park, it was, of course, everyone knew me as the boss's daughter. It was it was quite known that I was the boss's daughter, and I got some crap for that, of course. But from I got crap from it from co-workers, but I didn't get anything from it from the water park. I got no recognition for anything, even though I would say I was a pretty good lifeguard starting off with some more guests services.

Warren 10:51

Out of 400 plus employees, in all honesty and all objectivity, you were in the top 10 employees in the entire water park. And now the it you might say the bar was a little bit low, but with some of the the people we hired. But but no, honestly, you you were always on time. You never called out, you never well, you did complain, but you were you were there, you did your job, you did it conscientiously, and uh it was it was noticed, but uh keep going, keep going.

Haley 11:25

Yes, admin never recognized me for the first year though, but yeah, that was for the first summer, that was really my full experience. It was just some jokes, mean jokes from the other teenagers, and then or just snarky remarks rather. And then just even though I felt that I was doing pretty well comparatively for even though I started off in a different area of the water park and then moved to lifeguarding, I still felt that I was pretty up there and never got any attention for that, which kind of bursted my bubble a little bit.

Warren 12:05

Well, and also I I I was thinking as you were talking, the perks you did receive for being my daughter at the water park. I I was thinking, what when you changed apartments, I got I did not get involved with that. I just told you if you want to do it, here's what you got to do. You talk to this person, and I'm staying out of it, or these people, I should say, and I just stayed out of it and let what happened happen with that. But the perks you received, you got a ride to work when we worked on the same days, yes, uh, which was basically every day. Or most I worked six days a week, you worked five, so I rode by myself one day a week. That was one perk you got you. Uh I would buy you lunch occasionally, so you got that. And then because the water park was in session while school was in session, I let you come into my office to do your homework after class. And I think that's really, I think, and the of course my office was air conditioned, so that that is a little bit of a part that you would get to come in there. But uh yeah, I I don't think you got any the other than those things, you didn't get any uh special treatment versus anybody else. I I really, I really don't.

Haley 13:24

Yeah, I don't think so either. I mean, I it made me closer with the managers in a way. Like, of course, the managers see did seem to like me. I could feel comfortable just talking with any of them like a normal little coworker, but compared to like another person who has no tie to this to the water park and got hired, I felt a lot more comfortable with management than they would have. Yeah. But that's about it.

Warren 13:53

And but that first year you were there, I mentioned you were easily in the top 10 of all 400 employees. And you didn't get any recognition, you didn't get any employee of the week awards, you didn't you did get recognized by the uh independent auditing agency for your lifeguarding skills, but you didn't get recognized as uh by the management team or or company or anything along those lines. And I will also say later in the season, I uh we hired your my son, your brother to to work there as well. Once we decide, okay, we'll go down to 14 years. We need still need more people, we'll get 14-year-olds. So we we hired Aiden as as well. And he he did a fantastic job for the last you know, he was there for the last four weeks of the season. And did uh did a fantastic job with that. But no. So no recognition, no awards, and then I made the decision to leave for the water park and go to where I am now. So the next year, and just and she listens. Melissa, my former intern and my replacement as director of HR at the water park, not to speak anything ill or bad against her, but one another reason I left besides the teenagers was it was really not my up to my skill and ability. My my intern took over for me next year and did a phenomenal job. So you didn't need 20 plus years of HR experience to to do that job at the water park. But tell the next year, I'm gone and you're still there. So how did your experience change after I left?

Haley 15:35

Well, with the other coworkers and everything, there was still this kind of a stigma behind me. But it is still like the returning people, they would still know me as the boss's daughter, even though at this point I had no ties to anyone in the Watson Park, which was ridiculous. But I finally got recognized twice in a 12-week period for being employee of the week, finally. And I don't know.

Warren 16:09

So you had the opposite, you know, normally when we think about nepotism, we're talking about, you know, it's it's the boss's job that comes in and slacks off. You were coming in and you were busting your butt. And while I was there, you wouldn't be recognized. And I guess the the management, the other management team did not want to show like you're getting favoritism, which you weren't, like I said. But when I wasn't there, the reins were off and you got to sh, you know, be recognized. Employee of the week, you know, the water park is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so it's like 12-ish, 13-ish weeks, and you got employee of the week twice. And and actually you had to leave early because you had to go to college before uh yeah, I left like a month early.

Haley 16:51

Yeah.

Warren 16:51

So maybe you got it dare I say twice in 10 weeks, maybe or less. So that's pretty cool. Oh, one thing you did get the first year just popped in my head that I had zero input over, and this is a whole story for another actually I have this down as a topic for a future date. We did a recruiting commercial in the year we both worked there, and you had more FaceTime than even the director of the water park on that little commercial, and you had more voice time than anybody, period, I think, in the little commercial. Maybe I'll I'll put that YouTube commercial up in the show notes. Oh, yeah. So for everybody. But I had I had zero to do with who was selected to speak in that that uh recruiting video. And actually, I I just got uh uh a text from the general manager. He took a picture of you speaking to the camera and texted it to me where I was somewhere else in the water park, and you were already finished by the time I made my way back over there. But that's how I found out they had selected you. You were not on the original list of who they were going to talk to, but I guess they changed their mind. And not only that, what are we? Five years later, they made a new recruiting video, which is cool and great. And they use a clip of you from five years ago, just a couple of seconds from then. So that was I thought that was pretty cool. But yeah, you you did get your recognition. So I guess for you, me getting the hell out of the way was was better for you, except you didn't get to sit in the air-conditioned office.

Haley 18:34

Right. But it was kind of ironic too, because I feel like now not having my dad over me anymore, it was kind of like, oh, okay. So I did kind of slack off just a little bit. Like I wasn't a hundred percent, maybe ninety-eight percent, but that at my least best performance, that's when I got the most recognized, which is pretty ironic.

Warren 18:59

But but you still got the recognition. So, anyways, I don't think that that's uncommon in nepotism situations where the the child sort of gets the short end of the straw because they want to give the outward appearance of, hey, we're we're not giving them, there's no advantage, there's no perks, there's no whatever else for being for this person. So I I think that sometimes happens. But I honestly, you know, once again, 24 years, 13 times that I've known about there being an nepotism situation, and only one, and the one was pretty mild, an entry-level position that had ridiculously high turnover. You know, who cares who cares who it was? They were going to come and go anyway. So having that person's son in hindsight. At the time it really irritated me. Maybe I don't know, maybe because of what I thought of the manager instead, sort of transferred over to their son as well. But yeah, I I didn't have any bad nepotism experiences. And and like I said, you did better with me being gone. And I did better with me being out of the water park. No, I I did I did enjoy my time there. It was fun. It was a it was a good time, but like I said, 400 teenagers and me do not match very well, period. End of story. So they needed somebody, dare I say, younger than me to do that job. They needed somebody with not the 20 years of experience to do my job. And like I said, they they backfilled me with someone excellent. Unfortunately, the next year COVID hit and they didn't open. And unfortunately, a lot of folks at the water park lost their jobs or got temporarily laid off. But that's that was 20 uh what 2021, 2020, whatever year that was. It was 2020, the year of COVID. So really that that's all. I if if any of our listeners you have any cool nepotism stories, hit me up on Instagram, send me a uh a message in Instagram, love to hear a story. Email us at feedback at jadedhr.com. Love to love to hear your stories about any nepotism stories funny, crazy, horrible that you might have. You know, the the boss's son does you know, someone once told me the the boss's son showed up like when his father would be there and otherwise didn't do diddly crap and collected a big ass salary paycheck and wasn't learning the skills. But overall, I think it's a lot of these nepotism stories they're brought up learning whatever in the industry is from the knee as a as a as a child listening to their parents build this company and know what's going on. So they they have insight and you know, unless they are that that Complete jerk. Don't get so butthurt about it. So anyways, I will end this episode with a best practice. Our best practice being don't get butthurt by nepotism. And with that, I'm going to thank our voice artist Andrew Culpa for our disclaimer at the beginning of the show. And our intro and outro music is the Devil with the Double by the Underscore Orchestra. So as always, I'm Warren.

Haley 22:27

And I'm Haley.

Warren 22:29

And we're here helping you survive HR One What the Fuck Moment at a time.