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:
- discriminate against an employee or applicant based on
race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping
condition, marital status, or political affiliation;
- solicit or
consider employment recommendations based on factors other than
personal knowledge or records of job-related abilities or
characteristics;
- coerce the political activity of any person;
- deceive or willfully obstruct anyone from competing for employment;
- influence
anyone to withdraw from competition for any position so as to improve
or injure the employment prospects of any other person;
- give an
unauthorized preference or advantage to anyone so as to improve or
injure the employment prospects of any particular employee or applicant;
- engage in nepotism (i.e., hire, promote, or advocate the hiring or promotion of relatives);
- engage in reprisal for whistleblowing;
- 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;
- discriminate based on personal conduct
which is not adverse to the on-the-job performance of an employee,
applicant, or others; or
- 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
- 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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