Biased Workplace Decisions: Recruitment and Further Assessments

The circus goes on. If we do not stop it as a society, we will reach a point where being a top-level manager in corporates or government will almost be synonym of being an A****** in most cases (I hear some of you saying we are already there, maybe I am more optimistic). Much is being claimed by governments and corporates regarding eliminating discrimination and bias from decision making, while little is achieved and the progress is often exaggerated. My experience of being pursued frequently by the corporates for the roles and having progressed to the final stages in the (usually lengthy) recruitment processes of top consulting firms and blue chips and universities (Google, MIT, Oxford, McKinsey, PwC, ..., for roles such as Senior Program Manager and Research Scientist) or working in consortia of many European firms including also such famous players, shows the decisions made from the recruitment stage to the final stage of closing the programs and projects are heavily over-biased (!) towards organisational power, or even things such as white supremacy, ethnic origins, citizenship and irrelevant personal belief or choices. Of course, capabilities also play a role! But no matter how well you do the job or be prepared to lead it to excellence or be lead by other team members, if you don't ring the stupid bells (beside the good ones) you will most probably be under unfair pressure. Decisions about the recruitment or work assessment are too frequently (!) taken by incompetent managers/supervisors who have rung more bells with the organisational power politics than the more competent ones, and/or have learnt to play the stupid recruitment/raise game rather than doing the job itself well. Sadly, I have also seen capable people decreasing themselves to stupid and incompetent players in exchange of being able to ring more bells and add extra buck or a new title to what they had (or even maybe to avoid suffering the pressure of implementing best practices and pursuing excellence, even where they practically can and the required elements are there!).