Legal to "Cater" jobs to people? (Promotions)

[newirish]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
New Mexico North


Is it legal for a public/government employer to "cater" jobs to people? By "cater" I mean to fix/change the standards on the job postings constantly so that only the people you like are able to apply, and thus get promoted?

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. You have 5 employees. You like one person for promotion. So you create a job posting that specifically lists that persons experience/education/training so that only that person can get the job....The next time a promotion is available, you change the posting again to hire the next person you like.

Basically my employer has changed the standards numerous times for the position of manager. The most recent time they changed it so that only ONE person could apply. They'll say "you must have 5 years experience for manager," one time.....then a few months later it'll change to "you must have 3 years experience and taken a very obscure training." They've done this and re-written postings to let less qualified people that they like apply. We had an assistant general manager position that clearly stated "must have a bachelors degree." There were plenty of candidates with bach. degrees, however my employer wanted someone that did not have a degree for that position, so they re-wrote the job posting so that it did not require a degree, and just like that the person they wanted gets the promotion over the more qualified people.


Is that legal?

 

[cbg]

For private employers, it is 100% legal. For governmental employers, there would have to be a specific law applicable to the specific arm of the government in question that prohibits it. I don't have any interest in rooting around in all the possible options to see if such a law exists, so unless you want to identify which governmental entity you work for, you may have to wait for someone else to provide anything more definite.

 

[commentator]

I would say it's highly doubtful that there are such regulations that apply. If this is a state civil service program, then not so much can be fixed in the specific job descriptions, but I have seen this done at the university level many times through my years and in the southeastern states. City, county or other municipal civil services, probably. Only if it could be shown that this tailoring of job requirements was done to exclude minorities or women, or some other group this way would there be any problem with it. It would need to show that persistent pattern. As far as tailoring job descriptions so that Joe Blow one can get the job as opposed to Joe Blow two, who's not the manager's favorite person....just depends on what kind of government entity.