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In the first company I confounded, we recruited a friend of my cofounder to a senior job. He looked like the right guy for the job but he actually really wasn't
by gommm 9y ago
In the first company I confounded, we recruited a friend of my cofounder to a senior job. He looked like the right guy for the job but he actually really wasn't. He was completely underperforming and junior employees looked at him and lost respect for both and my cofounder for keeping him on.
Because he was a friend who had left his job to work for us, we didn't fire him and he continued undermining the company with his poor performance for a year. I think this was the worst mistake I did. In the end, he left the company and screwed us over on some account.
So, I've learned from this:
- do not hire friends as senior executive
- if you insist on hiring friend, have a clear backup plan if things don't work out so that you can both end the relationship. Be prepared to lose your friendship in doing that.
- never let an underperforming senior employee fester in your company. It's like rot, it will drag down the entire company by devaluating the work your other employees do
- Retric 9y agoAlternatively, don't recruit friends that already have jobs or need to relocate. If someones out of work to start then letting them go is arguably less traumatic.
- nashashmi 9y agoAlso, if you hire a friend, keep him at a distance, say one or two tiers. This way, feedback will still be there, and you won't be making the decision of firing all by yourself. And of course, work won't come in the way of friendship.