Was it always this way? My employer just made the comment that friends/fam make “the best candidates” for the job. As with most employers, they have been short staffed and dealing with high turnover, especially this spring and summer, leading to massive issues. What has me confused is why they would encourage hiring fam/friends so much? When I began working over 13 years ago, it felt like having friends and family working together only meant that they would spend more down time talking with each other, and that various conflicts of interest would arise. If anything, it FELT like management would really prefer for your coworkers to not be your friends and family.
I’m wondering, do they seem to be encouraging this now because employees might be less likely to quit since their friends/family are there and they feel the need to maintain those relationships? I imagine working with fam/friends would make people less likely to speak up for themselves, more likely to work OT, etc. In fact, my personal rule is I will NOT work for/with family because I know I would have a hard time speaking up for myself, leaving work on time, etc. I think it’s easier to have a separation between work and personal life when NOT working with my fam/friends.
I just thought this recent email referring to them as the “best” candidates was interesting. I work in banking where security is a big concern, so I always thought they would be more worried about conflicts of interest type stuff.