In the college where I work, the lecturers mutter an irreverent verse: those who can, teach; those who can’t, manage. 

But, as with any aphorism, this general truth does not hold for all situations. There are teachers who cannot teach and managers who cannot manage, either - but so far no poetry, only expletives, have been inspired by this cruel combination. The deepest problems can arise when these two factors coincide: poor managers who sponsor poor teachers.

The motivation for a manager to employ a teacher not equipped to do the job often lies in misplaced loyalty borne of outside friendship. A few years ago, when a recent role was filled at a previous college I worked at, no one could recall interviews even being held until the day the appointed person arrived. 

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It transpired they were minimally qualified for the job and with no prior experience of FE teaching. Not only this, but they were also placed as course leader from the outset, despite existing teachers with good credentials being neither consulted nor offered this role themselves. 

This would be the first cost of a manager hiring a friend: stress and resentment through the ranks. But this is just the start. 

Before I go further, you are probably wondering what evidence I have for suggesting that the appointment was the outcome of cronyism. Well, since this isn’t a court of law, hearsay evidence is admissible. 

Four major pitfalls 

Firstly, teachers tend to socialise and people within the same circle of friends recognised the new appointee as a best pal of the manager who hired him. Then there was evidence of differential treatment. Mistakes, errors and acts of negligence by the newbie did not lead to public shamings (angry emails, meeting criticisms, suspension) that would have followed for others. 

In fact, all mess-ups (and there were many) were handled privately and the job of corrections (re-marking, cover teaching, rewriting of materials) was delegated to others rather than referred back to their source. This would be the second cost of hiring a friend: a growing sense of injustice, and sense of division between managers and teachers.

Of course, the costs of hiring a friend are borne by the friend also. Within three months they were highly stressed in their new role. Students were unhappy with the quality of teaching, and poor end-of-term evaluations reflected badly on the college statistics. 

The first sign that I noticed that something was really up was that marking deadlines were being missed - not by a few hours or even days but by weeks and even months. It was not long after this before absenteeism became more common as work pressures clearly told. Any initial rapport with colleagues was declining and students were even starting to vote with their feet and boycott classes.

At this point, responsible intervention by management was needed yet, sadly, none was forthcoming. Instead, the teacher in question filed bullying and harassment cases against some of their students and, again, these were dealt with behind closed doors rather than openly and transparently. This is a third cost: the friend, too, incurs costs to their mental wellbeing where favouritism has trumped professional standards. 

Hiring a friend proved costly to the manager too and, I hope, a learning experience. Over time it became increasingly difficult to cover up for the incompetence on display. When external examiners came into the college to review procedures and practices, they found that this person’s marking quality was inconsistent, their exam papers contained glaring errors and that student feedback was dreadful. Some of these issues should have been picked up internally, but friendship had led to detail getting glossed over, which ultimately led to the hiring manager being implicated. 

At this point, loyalty was unsurprisingly strained as the friend was placed on extended sick leave until the inspection was complete. This is a fourth cost: managers can lose professional respect and can be forced to do extra work to cover up for and mitigate unfolding carnage.

The ultimate cost of such cronyism is that good staff tend to leave and bad staff stay or are promoted to management positions - and the whole process repeats.

Rufus Reich is a pseudonym. The writer is a FE lecturer in England