A vast majority of business leaders say favoritism plays a role in how workers get promoted. Favoritism defined as preferential treatment based on factors unrelated to a person's abilities, such as background, ideology, or gut instincts.
One such case is amazing to everyone who hears about it. Funny though, it’s not amazing to the co workers who quietly repeat the word favoritism when they hear about or have to deal with Perry and anything related to his employment.
The rest of the workers in the office agree that several managers play favorites. They have their “pets.” This manifests itself in various and subtle ways. “Perry gets his schedule. If he needs a Saturday off he just asks, the rest of us have to use the form and get it approved” says Robin, Perry’s co-worker. “He doesn’t seem to have the same rules to follow as the rest of us.” She sniffed.
Co-worker Patty had a harrowing experience that still bothers her. About a year ago, she was in the break room eating lunch. “I remember sitting there with a coffee and sort of facing the wall. I was paging through one of the magazines on the table. I could tell someone was behind me on the other side of the room. It was Perry. He was holding a knife with the point out. He was smiling and said, “I am going to kill you!” then let out a laugh. “I was scared. There was no one in the break room but the two of us. I got up and left. I went to the ladies room to think. I then went down to the HR office to report what happened. I told the HR lady, I am not sure if he was serious or not. It just kinda freaked me out.” Patty continued. “The HR lady was very understanding and didn’t try to downplay what had happened. I left for the rest of the day. When I got home and told my husband, he was ready to blow a gasket. I calmed him down and told him they will take care of this guy.”
Patty didn’t tell anyone and watched the situation. She knew there was a meeting with him in HR, the result being that Perry was suspended from work. “I then saw his protecting managers fly into action. I bet they explained it all away and even discredited me to save their favorite.” Patty knew there was quite a lot of activity behind closed doors. The next week, Perry was back on the job. Nothing more was said to Patty and everyone just went about their work. Since this issue really didn’t get out, not too many people even knew this happened. About a week later, Perry transferred to another department. Things settled down for Patty who remained focused on her job.
People come and go in large companies all time. If you hang around long enough, you are bound to see positions get filled with people and you just think they didn’t have anybody else. The grapevine moves very fast. Back in the break room some associates were talking about some of the new people changes. Someone asked. “Hey, do you remember Perry? he got Supervisor over his department. Patty took notice, “What? you mean that idiot Perry? He got Supervisor? Patty didn’t say more than that but was sure it was because he was the favorite. He got out of trouble instead of getting terminated. “What a surprise”, she said.
