Cronyism as a means to an end

[Sub Atomic]

The manager which I, up until very recently, worked for hired a 'friend' of his for at least a 50% greater salary than any other member of the team I worked on. This 'friend' bragged about the fact that he could work less than 10 hours out of a 40 hour week on company business, yet make more than any of the rest of us who regularly worked 50, 60, even 70 hours per week in order to get the job done.

The manager of this group saw nothing wrong with this. In fact, he argued against the fact that this 'friend' and he went way back. To him, it was justified to screw over the other team members on their salaries in order to pay his 'friend' an exorbitant amount of money for the amount of work (and actual contribution to the project) that this guy made. It was one of the biggest deciding factors for me to leave my job.

So where do these people come from who believe that cronyism can and should be used as a means to an end? What is the mindset that allows people to screw some of their hardest workers in exchange for providing a job for some bozo who would be better employed cleaning litter boxes in the local animal shelter?

I have a meeting with the vice president of the group I used to work with on Monday. I am trying very hard to understand where this mindset comes from, but cannot for the life of me comprehend it.

Is there anyone on this board who understands the crony mentality? If so, would you please, please pass this information on so that I can be better prepared for what I'm facing Monday morning?

Thanks for all of your help.

Steve

[Nikia]

1. Some people are like that

It sucks. The fact is that quite a few people hired for mid to high level positions are not hired on merits but their connections. Bosses will protect and treat their people more favorably than everyone else regardless of work performance. It is frustrating but it is life. That is one of the reasons that I am for affirmative action. I don't think it is as bad as cronyism which is openly practiced in the American workplace.

[SharonAnn]

2. I personally think they're all criminals, sociopaths

They're a lot like *. You don't have to "do" anything, just have "friends" who'll pay you lots of money.

Notice that the * brothers don't start any businesses where they actually "do" anything, "build" anything, or "provide" anything in the open market. They closest they come to it is building a software system to practice taking tests (Neil *) and then get the brother (Jeb *) to require testing in all the schools in Florida. Of course Neil's company gets the contract!

Thieves, all of them.

Recommendation: Stay focused on the fact that you contribute a lot and don't feel you get recognition for your contributions to the business.

Crony Capitalism - how to ruin an economy. See Japan and Russia.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. In the U.S., it's one of the legacies of the trickle down effect.

But cronyism and especially nepotism is strongly practiced in other countries. We just never expect to see it here because of all this bunk about being a country of rugged individuals. Now we're coming to learn that these rugged individuals are just ruthless @ssholes who have strong crony ties.