By Felix Pitman, First Year, Modern Languages
With students looking for work in an increasingly competitive job market, connections are being used more than ever to secure a job. Having family or friends in a business to give you helpful information or simply being favoured over other candidates can really give someone a step up in getting hired. In discussions like this, contention arises from discussion over whether using these connections is ethical, which has led to the phrase ‘Nepo baby’ being thrown around a lot. But is that really the proper phrase to be using for anyone with these types of links?
While it is true that family connections play a big part in finding jobs, with around 2 in 5 British workers citing using such connections to find work, I don't see the harm in reaching out to family if they have jobs you’re interested in. Networking is a big part of finding jobs today, and it becomes very useful already knowing or being recommended by people in the company, so you can't really be to blame if such networking is conveniently already a family link. It’s just the natural flow of the job market to reach out to any people you can in an employment field you like to increase your chances. This shines through in the stats; as even though around 60 per cent of 18-24 year olds in the UK oppose nepotism, around 68 per cent admitted to using it themselves to land a job, with even 75 per cent of the interviewed who opposed it admitting to have used it. While stuff like blind hiring could remove biases, do you really think people who already have those links will give them up? Unlikely. To me, it seems like if you can’t beat them, it’s better to join them.
‘Calling anyone a ‘Nepo baby’ detracts from us dealing with the real harm nepotism can cause in finding work in our society as a whole, and instead leads people to pointlessly witch-hunting over menial examples of industry connections.’
The big hitch for me is the term itself ‘Nepo baby’ and its frank overuse. I’m no etymologist, but the use of ‘baby’ in the phrase always meant to me someone who had the boost from family connections giving them a job without any effort needed, not someone who’s reached out by their own vehemency to get a foothold in the job market. Finding a job still takes effort and keeping it requires skill, and I think any really undeserving suspects of the ‘Nepo baby’ name will shine through in their low quality of work. The term should really be used to highlight those with undeserving positions thanks to nepotism and how it gets used to maintain class boundaries, not just any small instance. It’s a blurry line between this, and simply utilising a connection as part of a larger job process, but I think if more people question when to use the term, and apply it properly, it will clear up.
Rebecca Le Jeune
Overall, while nepotism is prevalent and frankly inevitable in most areas of work, calling anyone a ‘Nepo baby’ detracts from us dealing with the real harm nepotism can cause in finding work in our society as a whole, and instead leads people to pointlessly witch-hunting over menial examples of industry connections. So if you’re about to call someone a ‘Nepo baby’, think twice about if they really deserve the title.
Featured image: Unsplash / Sung Shin
Do you think the term ‘Nepo baby’ is used too often?
