A guy I know (he married a woman who used to work with my wife) runs a department at one of the local council offices. In one of the small (5 or 6 people) offices he was in charge of, the head of the office was moving elsewhere, so he had to promote someone to the head position.
The obvious candidate was the second in charge, who had been there years, and actually did the job while the head was away.
But no, my friend was told (by his bosses) that he had to promote the black teenager who had only just started, solely because he was black. Now the black guy was really nice, and all of them liked him, so my friend went to have a word with him to explain the situation. He was absolutely horrified, he said he didn't know his own job yet and there was no way he would do that to his co-workers, and if they attempted to promote him he would resign.
In the event my friend promoted the second in command, and almost got sacked over it!.
No one should be promoted or employed on the basis of colour or religion, it should be purely on ability - being told you have to employ someone totally incapable of doing the job is just absolutely stupid.
The obvious candidate was the second in charge, who had been there years, and actually did the job while the head was away.
But no, my friend was told (by his bosses) that he had to promote the black teenager who had only just started, solely because he was black. Now the black guy was really nice, and all of them liked him, so my friend went to have a word with him to explain the situation. He was absolutely horrified, he said he didn't know his own job yet and there was no way he would do that to his co-workers, and if they attempted to promote him he would resign.
In the event my friend promoted the second in command, and almost got sacked over it!.
No one should be promoted or employed on the basis of colour or religion, it should be purely on ability - being told you have to employ someone totally incapable of doing the job is just absolutely stupid.