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I used to wonder why so many “people of color” were living in the “Projects” in Asheville, NC, which is my hometown. Surely, most of them want to work and live a dignified life like most Americans. Everyone has their own thoughts, but I am going to share mine. When I moved to Asheville, NC, after retiring from the Air Force in 2005, I noticed that there were very few people of color in Asheville. I found this to be rather odd. After working only a few days in my former government agency, I realized there was a severe problem going on when I saw only about five African Americans in my agency out of about 500 employees. It was time to address the matter and to educate others so they could make cultivated decisions about their careers.
Nepotism is the illegal hiring of their family and/or friends in the government by those in authority. When you have illegal hiring of family and friends, the moral in the workplace goes down, and you see “qualified” people working in the lowest grades in the federal government and “unqualified” people getting hired and promoted in the federal government. Then add in the fact that racial discrimination also plays an essential part in why there are so many “people of color” who are suffering from financial drawbacks to not being hired or promoted. You can learn more about racial discrimination at https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm
I listened to my “Caucasian” management brag about hiring their family and friends. It was disgusting to me as employees would secretly talk to me about the matter because they knew I had worked in Human Resources for over 22 years at the time, in 2012. You are probably wondering what I did about it—I did report it to the Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C.
How do federal supervisors and managers get away with nepotism and racial discrimination? First, if a federal supervisor/manager wants to hire a “certain person,” they can write a position description (PD) that would “eliminate” other potential people from being qualified. This action is called a federal prohibited personnel practice (PPP), and it grants the “targeted individual hire” an illegal and unfair disadvantage. You can research nepotism restrictions in your state at http://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-table-nepotism-restrictions.aspx.
Second, only certain federal employees may receive training that can later support them receiving a promotion that requires the training they attended. This action is also a prohibited personnel practice that is illegal and reportable to the Office of Special Counsel that investigates valid prohibited personnel practices. You can contact them here: https://osc.gov
If you are concerned that you were not hired due to nepotism or because of your race, be sure to reach out to the resources I provided in this article. It is illegal to receive retaliation for being a “whistleblower.” Yes—retaliation does happen, but if you ignore a serious problem, it does not go away—it lingers.
If you receive any reprisal for filing charges of nepotism, prohibited personnel practices or discrimination based on unfair treatment because of your race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information, be sure to contact the agency you filed the charges with and submit the “alleged retaliation” charges within the required time-frame required for each agency. We can all make a difference in elevating humankind. Speaking up about racial discrimination resulted in over 20 African Americans being hired in my former government agency. Positive change can happen by speaking up!
I believe that employees and employers should be empowered to work in safe and respectful work environments. For more articles, check out: https://goodmenproject.com/author/consultwithdawngmail-com.
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