Asking for a favour is like borrowing money: you should know you will have to repay it, with interest. At least with money you have a good idea (at current interest rates) what it will cost you in the fullness of time — lenders are obliged to tell us nowadays.
If you find yourself in an ecosystem — or even in a defined group of people — in which the giving and accepting of favours is the order of the day, move on, move out, get away, run. The most obvious consequences we’ve had to deal with are those arising out of cadre deployment in politics, but nepotism can be found as often in the private as the public sector.
It is self-evident to any objective analysis that suboptimal outcomes (I’m being kind) emerge when favouritism prevails over merit, or even common sense. If you appoint people to a position of authority without due regard for their capability, or even the basic understanding required to exercise judgment or make decisions, or even preside over the making of such decisions, you are courting disaster.
This has been made abundantly clear to us through the failure of awarded contracts to deliver value for money, or to demonstrate even the most basic understanding of money, its origins, applications, costs or returns. But the true damage of applied undue influence runs far deeper than that.
Influence without ability, or any influence exercised but not warranted, is nothing less than bullying. A culture of bullying encourages showing off and sucking up, particularly for those not (yet) included in the hierarchy by either association, popularity or bargain. In the result initiative is discouraged (if not suppressed) and independent thought is destroyed. The entire system eventually crumbles to the lowest common denominator of human behaviour. Violence rules, whether manifest physically or mentally.
It doesn’t start out this way, and it’s not always obvious. Sometimes it may even appear kind or of no consequence — undue preference or forgiveness here or there, a little bribe meant only to avoid an inconvenience, a breach of confidentiality. Hey, everyone does it, right?
Maybe so, but once you’ve submitted to its temptation you’ll never be free again. The real scourge of favour-accepting lies in its repayment. You’ll know when you’ve been granted something you didn’t deserve and you can be sure the demand for its return will come. It’ll eat you up. You may wait some time for the call to come, but it will, and you’ll know it has when it does. The only way to avoid it is to stay away from the start. There is no cure, and the only sure vaccine is abstinence.
Of course there’s a place for kindness, particularly when given generally or anonymously, typically not from a position of influence. We all know the difference, and that doesn’t require explanation. Favouritism is preference shown among things otherwise the same.
We can all do with a little help sometimes, and the lines of objective assessment can blur. Social grants, for instance, are to a greater or lesser extent necessary, particularly in a society as unequal as ours, but when they are given in exchange for the vote they become a favour, and that circle of obligation and suppression never ends well, or simply never ends.
To escape the weight of corruption past favouritism must be banished from government hierarchies. Allegiance to a cause is not favouritism, but the transition happens when allegiance is demanded, enforced or required for the advance, or even acceptance of the individual.
A culture of favour always starts from the top. Weak leaders, themselves typically beneficiaries of favour, appoint weak followers, and eventually the only currency of progress is to do the bidding of those in appointed charge. In time obvious pending existential failure changes the popular vote, or the favour-ridden organism simply implodes.
• Barnes is an investment banker with more than 35 years’ experience in various capacities in the financial sector.
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