[Foundation-l] Erik's New Job

George Herbert george.herbert at gmail.com
Tue Dec 18 20:55:36 UTC 2007


On Dec 18, 2007 12:33 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doesn't make it any more justified. If anything, it makes it even more
> underhanded.
> Erik recused himself over the issue of voting Sue to ED, then she
> turns around and
> promotes him to Deputy ED?

> It just screams that they were planning it,

Possibly.  One could ask them if it had come up in discussions rather
than speculate.  I would on first glance not care if the answer
happened to be yes; Erik did abstain / recuse on the one possible
conflict of interest vote regarding the situation, and the Board
didn't adopt an anti-board-hire policy which would have been violated,
though there was some discussion.

> and the fact
> that the position was /never/ advertised makes it all the more upsetting.

Most executive level positions are not advertised.  Some do not
involve any wider search at all, but top-down recruitment efforts.

This is normal.  There's nothing improper about it at all.

I assume that Sue discussed the issues around having such a person
with the board and got their approval to hire someone for it.

> While
> I sympathize with Sue's aims to produce a productive and professional office,
> back-door job offers are not the way to go about it.

There would be no outcry if the American Red Cross' president or
executive director said "I want person X as my assistant director" and
hired them without a search.

Real world hiring is mixtures of open searches, private searches, and
private selections.

We also don't factually know that Sue didn't conduct a private search.
 You're assuming that.  All we do know is that there wasn't a public
search.

Regardless of whether there was a private search or a private
selection, either case is ethical in business or charity employment.

Part of the implied social contract between organizations and senior
management is that senior management are assumed to be ethical and
have good business and personnel judgment.  If you do not believe that
Sue has good personnel judgment then either you have a perceptions
problem or Sue should not be the ED.  I see no sign that Sue has used
poor judgment in asking Erik to fill this role - he's clearly an
energetic and wide-horizons person who's worked both within our
community and outside it on educational issues.

This is what we hired Sue to do - direct things.  Complaining that
she's done so is silly.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com



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