The Daughter Of Nepotism

A supervisor has been trying to get his daughter some work experience in our office, as she has just finished school. He has been boasting about her so much we are actually quite excited to meet her. During her interview she’s quite eager to please and we are impressed with her qualifications. She is accepted for a probationary period of 13 weeks.

In her first week she is absolutely fantastic, but after that she refuses to do anything, seeing it as beneath her education or skill level. She is working mostly clerical at the moment and is told that if she can’t do the work or agree to focus on something, we will have to let her go. She tells her father and he comes to the office in a rage, demanding that we give her something more engaging. When asked, he brags that she would be able to replace me, a health and safety advisor with over 15 years experience and holder of a NEBOSH national diploma. I humour him and offer to put her through our IOSH Managing Safely course, and take her on a few walkabouts. He agrees.

To put it mildly, she is completely disinterested and refuses to go on any walkabouts with me, instead choosing to lounge about in my office, with the door locked on the inside, while I am out. We receive her IOSH results as a failure for not even turning up once. This incurs a cost against us which, despite it being internal and not as steep as it would have been if outsourced, doesn’t put her in good graces with many of us.

At her 13-week review, it is decided we won’t take her on, and she practically runs screaming and crying from the office. Her father comes in and demands we take her on or he walks. We can’t bring ourselves to do it, so we part ways.

The most shocking thing about the entire experience was after the supervisor left, our Key Performance Indicators nearly doubled!