No exceptions means no exceptions.

I'm not naming any names here, but a certain white-collar job makes a good friend of mine feel like a bouncer sometimes. 

This person is the 'next-in-line' person to call when a candidate doesn't like his/her outcome.  Most of the time the calls come from outside candidates.  But occasionally, those calls come from co-workers.  They wonder why the person they lobbied for didn't make it through the process.  They want to know if a policy exception can be made.

An exception?

Exceptions based on personal preference are a huge contributing factor to horrible customer service, low employee morale and (ultimately) an underperforming organization.  It's bad enough that most corporations don't use strict selection guidelines when hiring (and especially when promoting) corporate, white-collar employees.  But this is, to an extent, rationalized by most employees as the status quo.  Unfortunately, willy-nilly decision-making when it comes to hiring can lead to employee discontent, poor performance and attrition down the food chain. 

Furthermore, unions often agree to uniform hiring procedures, so they can take as much power away from management as possible.  Again, I can understand why an outside candidate would ask to get around the system.  But why on earth would a co-worker do the same?  Whose side are they on?  Don't they realize what's at stake?  Do they enjoy it when employees see the bad example?  If they don't mind that, how about when their employer gets sued for discrimination because the company violated its own policies and labor agreements?

No exceptions means no exceptions.  It's amazing how difficult it is for some people to understand that.

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