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> You are the problem. A minor point. I recently had to let a junior level person go after "giving them a chance" for around 5 months. I did everything I could

> You are the problem. A minor point. I recently had to let a junior level person go after "giving them a chance" for around 5 months. I did everything I could, extra mentoring, warnings, gentle pressure, lighter work and finally, an opportunity to shift into a simpler projects so that they'd get more comfortable. This was, as the article mentions, emotionally draining for me and unfortunately, the dislike split over from professional to personal. I let the person go and that's that. Now, the relevant part of this comment, I hired someone else and because of the baggage from the previous person, I very quickly started getting dissatisfied with the new hire. This would have ended in a disaster if one of my other employees didn't tell me that this new person has only been on for less than a month and was doing okay. Prompted me to re evaluate myself. So yes, hiring and firing junior people is a problem usually with the hirer but it might be due to things that you have to watch out for.

snarf21 9y ago
I agree with everything you said but I think you place to much blame on yourself as a hirer. There will also be people who put on a good front but just want to coast once they get in. This is especially true in big companies that are loathe to fire. I know people say to keep ramping up the testing and difficulties of interviews but we've started to create a culture where all you end up with is people who are good at that, not creating value for the company. I once had to fire someone because they absolutely refused to fill out an annual self review that would have taken 10 minutes. (There were other similar events that lead up to this). Technically they could do the work just fine but didn't want to live in the real world. I had many conversations about attitude and working with the team. I don't know how an interview process would capture this. Incidentally, I see him at local meetups and he recently told me his is thinking about quitting his current job because their office moved 5 miles away and he didn't want another 5 minutes of commuting.
- noufalibrahim 9y ago
  I can see how your observations about these people are different manifestations of the problem I saw in my employee. My impression was that he was drunk on the whole "cool startup" attitude that's so rife these days. Things like a bean bag in the office were so important to him and he wasn't willing to deliver any work.

snarf21 9y ago

I agree with everything you said but I think you place to much blame on yourself as a hirer. There will also be people who put on a good front but just want to coast once they get in. This is especially true in big companies that are loathe to fire. I know people say to keep ramping up the testing and difficulties of interviews but we've started to create a culture where all you end up with is people who are good at that, not creating value for the company. I once had to fire someone because they absolutely refused to fill out an annual self review that would have taken 10 minutes. (There were other similar events that lead up to this). Technically they could do the work just fine but didn't want to live in the real world. I had many conversations about attitude and working with the team. I don't know how an interview process would capture this. Incidentally, I see him at local meetups and he recently told me his is thinking about quitting his current job because their office moved 5 miles away and he didn't want another 5 minutes of commuting.

noufalibrahim 9y ago
I can see how your observations about these people are different manifestations of the problem I saw in my employee. My impression was that he was drunk on the whole "cool startup" attitude that's so rife these days. Things like a bean bag in the office were so important to him and he wasn't willing to deliver any work.