To Promote or Not to Promote...

--whoa. corrections have been made. that's all I'm gonna say.--

I have seen people be promoted, passed over, and fired. I have also been through similar circumstances. And I have to say: a lot of it seems to be really spontaneous.

No one seems to think things through when doing so, therefore you end up getting a lot of incapable people in power, and good candidates on the street. Why is this? There are several factors involoved.

The first one is pressure. Recently I've noticed that it could be just the manager pressuring him'erself to promote as fast as possible. This makes it look like they are good at training. However once that employee is out of said manager's hair, any mistakes they make are their own. There can also be pressure from the higher-ups to fire someone because money or product is missing (or profits aren't high enough).

Weaker managers buckle under this pressure. They don't want to fire anyone, or they rush in picking those to promote, thereby making a wrong decision and making future decisions of the same even more difficult. If one hastily promotes a thief and fires a good candidate for CEO, s/he is going to have to do one of two things once s/he figures out the truth: pretend that s/he was right, or admit to everyone that s/he made a mistake.

Another factor is--you guessed it--biases.* If that manager is racist or sexist, more than likely s/he is going to make a poor decision somewhere down the line. There may be an excellent candidate for promotion, but if s/he is of the "offending" description, then in reality his'er job is more likely up for termination.

And, finally, favorites. We all have that special someone we enjoy working with, what's wrong with that? If that's all it is, then nothing--but otherwise, well--just read on.
Bob is a new employee at "Jane's Mart, Inc." He is an intelligent, funny, kind, hard-working guy, and his personality really compliments his boss's. They hit it off and his boss begins to trust him with different things, and--because they are friends and all--doesn't watch him. When he costs the store money, the manager chalks it up to mistakes. When product goes missing, the boss looks elsewhere. Not readily finding the problem, this manager starts to imagine problems with other people, finally firing the wrong person. Bob isn't stupid--he knows to stop doing anything until a replacement is hired. And the process starts all over again with him never being suspected.
That's what's wrong with favorites. It is estimated that 83% of theft in any retail business is done by employees, and you can't tell who's a statistic just by looking. Service with a smile indeed!

So when it comes down to it, management doesn't always make decisions based on fact and reality. But you probably already knew that.

**A quick little message to those in any customer service position who is prejudiced against any kind of people: Get out of that profession now. You can't be a doctor that is afraid of germs or a musician who refuses to play B sharp, can you? So unless you can repress these feelings wholly and completely (and you are in no way a part of the hiring/firing process), then just quit now. Thanks**