Dear Bureau Pat,

I am a manager of a federal government division and my daughter-in-law has applied for the only analyst vacancy.  She's highly qualified and I think she'd be a great fit for the position. Would it be appropriate for me to arrange a meeting with the supervisor of that section to describe her qualifications?

Dear Nepotist,

The times of hiring friends and family members in the federal government is long past.   This is due in part to the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. 2302).  So unless you are the President and have to meet your obligations to grant political favors, then common sense would suggest "No" is the answer to your question.

However, common sense does not always play within the government, so I’ll take this opportunity to address this question with insight and facts.

As a model employer, the federal government has lead the effort in fair labor practices and prohibits the granting of preference or advantage, not authorized in law, rule, or regulation to improve or injure the prospects of any person.

In your particular case, you are the manager of the selecting official.  And while your intentions appear to be benign, the perception could be that you are telling this supervisor to hire your daughter-in-law even if you are just addressing her qualifications.

So what are the prohibited practices?

There are twelve actions a federal employee authorized to take, direct others to take, recommend or approve any personnel action may not engage in:

1. discriminate against an employee or applicant based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation;
2. solicit or consider employment recommendations based on factors other than personal knowledge or records of job-related abilities or characteristics;
3. coerce the political activity of any person;
4. deceive or willfully obstruct anyone from competing for employment;
5. influence anyone to withdraw from competition for any position so as to improve or injure the employment prospects of any other person;
6. give an unauthorized preference or advantage to anyone so as to improve or injure the employment prospects of any particular employee or applicant;
7. engage in nepotism (i.e., hire, promote, or advocate the hiring or promotion of relatives);
8. engage in reprisal for whistleblowing;
9. take, fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take a personnel action against an employee or applicant for exercising an appeal, complaint, or grievance right;
10. discriminate based on personal conduct which is not adverse to the on-the-job performance of an employee, applicant, or others; or
11. take or fail to take, recommend, or approve a personnel action if taking or failing to take such an action would violate a veterans’ preference requirement; and
12. take or fail to take a personnel action, if taking or failing to take action would violate any law, rule or regulation implementing or directly concerning merit system principles.

Notice that #7 includes the rather vague "advocate," which your actions could easily be interpreted as being.  So while this benevolent gesture appears to be harmless, it in fact could put you in a position where you are the recipient of corrective action.

Bureau Pat’s rule of thumb is, if you have any influences on the system then keep family members, friends and associates at a distance.  Besides, as the saying goes - "familiarity breeds contempt" so you might want to recommend your daughter-in-law look at other employment options for the sake of your own relationship!

The Only,

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