Family connections can only get you so far…

And, in my humble opinion, if a family member helps you get your foot in the door at a company, you better work your *** off and do a GREAT job.

But you know how people can be…

This person had to fire their cousin and now they want to know if they took things too far.

Check out what they had to say in this story from Reddit.

AITA for firing my cousin?

“I work in a medium sized financial investment company in Australia.

When the company was hiring for an analyst position, I spoke to the department head about my cousin Damo, who recently graduated, and confirmed they could apply. I normally sit on the interview panel but agreed to sit it out for Damo.

With a good amount of coaching, he aced the interview. So far so good!

We recruit in batches, rotating through different teams, which means we can see where they will be best suited.

It sounded like a good idea at the time…

Again I consulted with the department head and agreed he could join my team, but he made it clear any favoritism would be career ending for me.

This is where the train leaves the tracks… it was like a light switch.

Uh oh…

Damo went from coming in the office 4/5 days a week, to working from home.

He burned through all his sick leave in a bit over a month. I wanted to talk with my aunt, Kazza, but felt that would have been crossing the boundary.

It all came to a head when he set up a meeting, no context, pulling our department head into a client meeting. When I called to get details he was MIA for an hour. When he finally responded I asked what happened – his response, just working.

I said how did you miss my call and that’s when he straight up lies, lying about IT issues.

The cherry on top was the meeting invite was a mistake, he added the wrong ‘Jake’ on the invite.

There was a boat load of work on my part, documenting performance warnings, getting login reports (pro tip, don’t use your work laptop to check sports results) etc.

Sorry dude, you’re fired!

End result was we dismissed Damo without going through warnings or performance management. The fallout has been huge – Kazza went nuclear, claiming I’ve ruined Damo’s life because this was his first real job.

Sure, I could have massaged some of the issues and asked Kazza to intervene. The lack of work ethic and putting my job on the line enraged me, so I can admit that firing him is what I thought he deserved.

AITA?”

Check out what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another individual said they all suck.

This person said they’re NTA.

Another reader had a lot to say.

And this individual spoke up.

Family or not…YOU’RE FIRED!

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.