Intranet snafu gets company sued

Most managers understand the importance of being fair during the hiring process. But a common pitfall often remains:
Playing favorites when promoting from within.
It’s apt to happen, because the hiring manager will likely know some or all of the people seeking the position. That can lead to promotions being handed out on the basis of personal likes and dislikes.
But as HR knows, any time a decision’s based on something other than actual qualifications, the company’s asking for trouble.
Take a look at this recent case, in which a company manipulated its internal job posting system to keep one woman from getting a promotion.
The woman, working as “Acting Electrical Supervisor,” sought a promotion to a permanent supervisory position for the employer’s mostly male staff. She responded to the job listing the company posted on its intranet. However, shortly after she applied, the listing disappeared, before anyone was selected.
A month or two later, the same listing went up again. The same chain of events occurred: The employee applied, the ad was taken down, the ad went back up. All in all, the employer advertised and un-advertised the position five times, before eventually promoting a male employee.
The new supervisor ended up resigning, because he wasn’t qualified for the position. By the time the job was open again, the female employee had quit.
She sued for gender bias, claiming she was the most qualified and that the company removed the listing after she applied because it didn’t want a woman to have the job.
The court agreed. After working as acting supervisor for more than a year, she would seem like the obvious choice for promotion. And since the company had no explanation for its stop-and-go job listing process (the exact same ad went up each time) the judge believed bias was most likely to blame.
Cite: Lewis v. District of Columbia