I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time.
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping I wish that were the measure of "culture fit"
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping that's literally in the job description of an office manager, though. It's one of their required traits!
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed. -
@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.@aj @faithisleaping like building football team?

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@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.@aj @faithisleaping I like that idea. I teach high school and I think schools at all levels can do more to help students identify their interests and aptitudes and start working on the skills that support those. They still have to study all the subjects to have a broad base of knowledge, but learning about their own personalities and strengths can help guide them as they start to specialize. Plus kids love finding things they're good at.
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@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.I absolutely agree - however, I've kind of hit the other end, where I'm now locked out because "not the right guy".
The approach has a flip side: if the role becomes vacant and someone from outside turns up with all the tickets, it's harder for them because they're not yet mates.
It's a crushing loop: too skilled / not skilled enough / hmm not quite a fit could probably be but we know [person] over there.
Doubly weird as a field scientist, who has to have every skill..
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I absolutely agree - however, I've kind of hit the other end, where I'm now locked out because "not the right guy".
The approach has a flip side: if the role becomes vacant and someone from outside turns up with all the tickets, it's harder for them because they're not yet mates.
It's a crushing loop: too skilled / not skilled enough / hmm not quite a fit could probably be but we know [person] over there.
Doubly weird as a field scientist, who has to have every skill..
**I don't have *every skill*. A ... broad array ... is necessary for traversing between shipping manifests and writing papers and inducting people into power tool usage and writing for grants and living in close company with a lot of other people for weeks on end.
The useful summary might be: I totally agree that hiring practice should look for more creativity and flexibility. Be more creative and flexible,
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping the irony is that these people usually *are* great for ROI. They may not be the most obvious, but some folks are facilitators that don’t do much on their own, but they act as force multipliers when working with other people.
You take them out, and your ROI plummets.
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping In the old days you used to be able to hire someone because at interview you thought "yes, we need someone like that to fill the role of office earth mother since so-and-so left", but with HR's insistence on things like uniform scoring charts these days it can't be as easy.
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@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.@aj @faithisleaping I feel that most of the small companies still hire people this way. We absolutely did.
Fortunately, not everyone is bound to the VC world. -
I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping Urgh, this resonates with me so much!🥹
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for expressing this.
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I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
@faithisleaping this is sadly not what capitalism optimizes for, it optimizes for profit, so anything that is against that profit even a bit will eventually get stripped away
on a smaller scale, there will be deviations to that, but on a larger scale, these get smoothed out
but yes, i agree with this
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@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.There’s another thing — if you’re “fancy” enough being a glue person means you “have leadership and management potential” and *do* get hired for it. (Conversely, I was once in a company that promoted from admin and front desk into project management when it noticed people doing the work, even if they didn’t have a degree or “looked wrong”. It was AMAZING.)
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