Recruit people carefully or you might end up regret
A friend of mine complained to me about her idiotic colleague few days ago. She’s the HR executive in her company. This idiot is a loner in the office due to his unique characteristics – tai chi master, boastful (quite extreme, according to her), childish, loves to laugh at people’s weaknesses, and other things you would expect from an idiot.
To be honest, I pity her because I have quite a similar experience as well.
I then threw her one question “Why don’t you find a way to force him out?”
She replied “My colleagues and I have tried isolating him. But he’s still the same! Our HR policy does not allow us to terminate someone due to their idiotic behavior. And so far, he didn’t do anything which is against the policy of the company (aka misconduct).”
She’s right. If there’s such an employee in your company who doesn’t do anything against the policy of the company and still do his job (pretty good too), there’s no good reason for you to terminate him unless you want the company reputation to go down the drain.
But the fact that this guy is bothering nearly every single employee (except the bosses) in my friend’s company doesn’t help either. I’ve seen such cases before in my previous companies and the idiots actually left soon after the isolation. Guess the case with my friend’s company is that the idiot does not want to leave. There are already few good people who left because of him and this is not good for the company.
And to be honest with you, I can’t think of anything to handle this guy – except for isolation from colleagues and if possible, bosses.
Maybe that’s why people always say prevention is better than cure. Always recruit people carefully. It’s true that it’s never easy to recruit good people, but I feel that it’s even harder NOT to recruit idiots. Reference checks? Those are useful but they are not 100% accurate. But it’s better than nothing at all.
If I were the boss, I will take in an average guy as my new employee rather than an idiot – all the time. No point ruining the spirit of the entire company because of one person.
Remember, no one person is bigger than the company.
Somehow, in one of my companies, we managed to terminate someone for not cooperating. The guy used to be good but after probation, he started to give attitude to the team lead. He refused to work and was very rude. Although he had the skills, the company felt it was best to terminate him for poor performance.
Well, just have to watch out to see when this guy slips up. But if you want to be nice, best to counsel him.
Or, if you want to be mean, recommend him to your competitor!
Angie Tans last blog post..We Saw This Coming… Didn’t We?
Angie Tan
18 Nov 08 at 10:32 am
You shud ask your HR friend to check on the state of their hiring practice ‘cuz it sounds terminally ill to me. Have they ever heard of pre-employment psychometric tests that can detect an idiot a mile away, even if they mask themselves as well-mannered geniuses? Deloitte used to have a good tool, as do a few others.
Damien Tan
18 Nov 08 at 10:40 am
@ Angie
Your previous company is not a multinational right? I think it’s okay to give warning and if the person doesn’t change, then maybe can ‘force’ him out. Termination is really the last resort to such situations since it doesn’t do well for the employee and the company.
Counsel him? =_= Even Abang J gave up on him man. Hhahaha.
@ Damien
Some of those tests are not really accurate. But it’s better than nothing. I think in the end, tests are just…tests. You can still cheat your way through it because you get to think what you write, but you may not be fast enough to think before you talk.
Alvin Lim
18 Nov 08 at 11:04 am
I kinda pity him. He don’t know how to communicate with others. If he’s a loner now, he’ll be a loner for the rest of the life.
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Maria
18 Nov 08 at 1:57 pm
@ Maria
And in terms of such things, you can’t do much but to wait for the person to change himself. 
He does have few friends. Not really 0.
Alvin Lim
18 Nov 08 at 7:51 pm
Why don’t write in his focal and force him to change? If no change, then give him 0% increment.
Anyway, sometimes when we recruit people also need to look at the candidate whether he or she can fit into a team. Different company has different culture and requires a different people.
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ChampDog
18 Nov 08 at 10:12 pm
@ ChampDog
The problem is, the company’s owner thinks he is valuable since other seniors have been forced away by him. Thus they gave him good increment, which made him think he’s indispensable to the company. LOL.
Alvin Lim
19 Nov 08 at 9:50 am
I think it is important to have a variety of different personality types when you have a group of people who work together. I would suggest talking to the guy instead of isolating him. He may not even know he is being annoying. I am sure there are some redeeming qualities about this person that can be focused upon instead of just calling him an idiot. We are all different and unique in our own ways and we should embrace our diversity. It makes life more interesting.
Karen
11 Feb 09 at 1:29 pm
@ Karen
But it is also important to make sure that the team spirit will not be ruined or the team will not become demotivated (or in a mess) due to a single person.
True, everyone is unique and it’s important to have different types of personalities within a team.
One of my seniors and I actually talked to him about this and he refused to admit angrily and walked off.
Alvin Lim
11 Feb 09 at 1:42 pm