I live in an unincorporated village on the south shore of Nassau County and the elected Board of Education has this problem that doesn\u2019t want to talk about and it\u2019s called nepotism. Three out of the seven members have a child working for the district, all who got jobs while their parents were on the Board including one member where both sons just were hired for the district. They will say there is nothing wrong with nepotism. They\u2019re right in the sense that it\u2019s not illegal as long as the parent board member abstains, but it gives the impression that something underhanded is being done. Impressions matter because it leads to negative inferences and assumptions.<\/p>\n
A few weeks back, a plan sponsor client asked me about a bundled third-party administrator. I thought hiring them would be a mistake, but the sponsor was still interested. I talked to the provider and they were trying to allay my fears before they did break the one cardinal rule: they offered me free tickets to a sporting event as their guest.<\/p>\n
My wife will say I don\u2019t charge enough for my service and she\u2019s probably right. But one thing I can\u2019t do is give anyone the impression that my opinions can be bought. While I have accepted sports tickets from providers where a client of mine wasn\u2019t a client of theirs, I try to avoid situations that give the impression that I can be swayed by something that looks underhanded. While being schmoozed is a part of the business, it\u2019s usual general schmooze that isn\u2019t tied to a specific client of yours that might give the impression that you have a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I live in an unincorporated village on the south shore of Nassau County and the elected Board of Education has this problem that doesn\u2019t want to talk about and it\u2019s called nepotism. Three out of the seven members have a … Continue reading