The CBC report on the Jian Ghomesi affair has come out. And d'uh, they have identified that they handled it incorrectly and this issue of favoritism is now front page news. Everyone is weighing in on it, and now I shall as well.
Favoritism is everywhere. And it is unlikely to go away, well, not unlikely, it is NOT going to go away. We display favoritism with most of our decisions, whether it be choosing Granny Smiths over McIntosh apples or deciding to ignore bad behavior from a favourite employee when we may have terminated a less favoured employee over the same behavior.
Some would argue that the favoritism is a business decision that CBC employed, and let’s face it, it served them well, at least until it blew up in their face, but really...how much has CBC really suffered? It is not like they are a private company, and we can show our displeasure through our spending habits. A few people have lost their jobs, so I suppose that is a good message. Ghomesi was a very popular figure for the CBC, and yes, maybe they made a conscious decision to look the other way. However, there are far better ways to reward a favoured employee without allowing the individual to circumvent common decency and break laws.
Most of us are not running high profile, national and international organizations, but we are dealing with favoritism. We are humans; we have favourites. Just because you are a manager or an executive, you do not suddenly become a blank slate with no feelings or deeply held perceptions about what you like and do not like. And what happens when someone who is a favourite becomes more of a liability than an asset?
I am not saying anything new or exciting here, just weighing in on the issue. We cannot eradicate favoritism but we can manage it.
Favoritism is everywhere. And it is unlikely to go away, well, not unlikely, it is NOT going to go away. We display favoritism with most of our decisions, whether it be choosing Granny Smiths over McIntosh apples or deciding to ignore bad behavior from a favourite employee when we may have terminated a less favoured employee over the same behavior.
Some would argue that the favoritism is a business decision that CBC employed, and let’s face it, it served them well, at least until it blew up in their face, but really...how much has CBC really suffered? It is not like they are a private company, and we can show our displeasure through our spending habits. A few people have lost their jobs, so I suppose that is a good message. Ghomesi was a very popular figure for the CBC, and yes, maybe they made a conscious decision to look the other way. However, there are far better ways to reward a favoured employee without allowing the individual to circumvent common decency and break laws.
Most of us are not running high profile, national and international organizations, but we are dealing with favoritism. We are humans; we have favourites. Just because you are a manager or an executive, you do not suddenly become a blank slate with no feelings or deeply held perceptions about what you like and do not like. And what happens when someone who is a favourite becomes more of a liability than an asset?
I am not saying anything new or exciting here, just weighing in on the issue. We cannot eradicate favoritism but we can manage it.