Nepotism.
September 30, 2014
By Gonzalo López Martí @LopezMartiMiami
- Last week my column dealt with a quite controversial fact in our line of business: getting paid properly is becoming increasingly difficult.
- I pointed out how some traits of our Latin Catholic culture can make it even harder.
- This week, I’ll address other issues hindering the full development of Latinos in the business world: nepotism and its cousin paternalism.
- Latin business people tend to treat their employees and clients with a “daddy knows best” attitude.
- In the short term it can be warm & fuzzy.
- In the long term it is a recipe for disgruntlement.
- We have a pathological, atavistic tendency to do business with friends and family.
- Or to believe our clients are friends & family (they are not).
- Moreover, we believe services rendered to a friend or relative should be free of charge or priced at a loss.
- Why?
- Because money is dirty and sinful, of course.
- Doing business with a pal or relative and earning a profit from it is usury, theft.
- It’s punished with hell or a protracted vacation in the purgatory waiting list.
- When we sell something to friends or family we Latins like to do it do it at a loss to cover our possibly dirty conscience under a mantle of faux generosity.
- Which we can subsequently use to create drama, cry foul, instill guilt and obtain a favor in return.
- Ultimately, everybody ends up holding grudges with one another and sitting your fam around the Christmas table becomes a mindboggling Rubik cube.
- Don’t think I renege my Catholicism.
- I live and die by my Latin Catholic upbringing.
- Family is first and foremost for me.
- I drink the Hispanic Catholic family-first Kool Aid every day.
- When I see Anglos kicking their children out of the house at 18 as if it were some sort of existential mandate I think to myself, what the f**k is wrong with this people?
- What can be wrong with having several generations living under one roof?
- It is physically and emotionally healthy, it’s ecofriendly, it substantially reduces our carbon footprint.
- Multigenerational households are great, they seamlessly solve lots of societal problems, they provide a bullet proof safety net that saves the government billions, even trillions in welfare services.
- Only big pharma and real estate developers want you to live by yourself in a rental studio apartment, two time zones away from your loved ones, miserable and lonely, meeting blind dates on Match.com and popping antidepressants with vodka.
- Going back to the point of this column: living with with mom & dad until marriage & beyond is great, but if you do you gotta help foot the bills in equal parts.
- Don’t be a shameless freeloader.
- Don’t buy mom & dad’s overacted generosity.
- They need the cash.
- Even if they don’t need it they want you to step up to the plate.
- You might think I’m contradicting myself here.
- But I stand by my advice: do live with your parents, siblings, cousins or grandparents under the same roof.
- It is totally ok.
- No shame in doing so.
- Some day Protestant America will learn how good it can be for the mental health and social fabric of a nation.
- However, doing business with parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents and friends is NOT ok.
- It’ll bite you back in your big Latin butt.
- It’s the anti meritocracy.
- Putting dollar signs on your labor, products or services will be a nightmare.
- Let alone collecting afterwards.
- You cannot sue a relative, it is embarrassing.
- Which leads us to: family businesses.
- Don’t hire your children.
- Please.
- A company is not necessarily an heirloom.
- It is not your kids’ right to inherit your job.
- A job must be earned.
- Do give them the best possible education money can buy.
- Shower them with cash to fund their own business ventures, even if they fail once and again.
- If they are talented and hard working, don’t clip their wings, let them prove it on their own, push them to start their own companies, set them free.
- If they are good, why would they want to work for mom and dad?
- If you hire them, you’ll instill in them an embarrassing sense of entitlement and, at the same time, a sad inferiority complex.
- They will become insecure, they will never know if they truly made it on their own.
- Nobody believes the bullsh*t fairy tale of the son/daughter of a company CEO who worked their way up the ranks from the mailroom.
- It’s the biggest lie in business folklore.
- On the other hand, if your heirs are lazy and untalented, why would you want to put the future of your company at risk by having them run it?
- Just give them a generous allowance and send them packing.
- Let them enjoy life and find someone else deserving of your mentorship.
- If you choose not to follow this policy, be aware that it will be close to impossible for you to recruit and retain valuable employees.
- They will notice the glass ceiling immediately and they will quit sooner rather than later.
- The only ones staying around will be the ass kissers and the slacks who, needless to say, will do a subpar job.