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Why are bad hires so damaging? I've encountered very unskilled coworkers, they didn't do any serious damage, just wasted some people's time and money. I'd actu

Why are bad hires so damaging? I've encountered very unskilled coworkers, they didn't do any serious damage, just wasted some people's time and money. I'd actually say the opposite: standout engineers can be very valuable, I'd rather work on a team with a couple lemons and one really good engineer than 3 middle of the road engineers. So I think that false negatives can be damaging, especially because it's probably the best people with the most options who won't bother with an excessive interview gauntlet.

avip 8y ago
Not sure your 'lemons' qualify as 'bad hires'. I've refrained from defining, as it requires context, but the 2 pillars of badhirism are negative productivity and negative attitude. Being "unskilled", by itself and in void, does not imply a bad hire IMO. We are all "unskilled" occasionally.
Shaanie 8y ago
Lemons can significantly impede a team's velocity and, more importantly, the team's overall happiness. It's difficult to enjoy and take pride in your work when the code base either looks like shit or require that you spend most of your time reviewing/cleaning up the mess the lemons create. Will your standout engineers enjoy working with the lemons?
- vonmoltke 8y ago
  I could substitute "the business" for "lemons" above and describe many (most?) companies. In that case, what effect are these lemons really having?
louthy 8y ago
Unskilled is a problem of course, but with an unskilled, but ambitious individual, they can be mentored. In my mind a bad hire is someone that has a negative drag effect on the psychology of the work environment or the project. I had one hire who was brought in as a junior dev, thought he was better than he was and that he didn't deserve to do the grunt work he'd been assigned, and then proceeded to constantly bitch about anything he could. He was so negative that when he finally moved on I was super relieved. That psychology of "why even bother" can just sink into people's subconcious and become problematic. It's hard to spot who's going to be like that at an interview though.
inimino 8y ago
Mostly because of bad management and an inability to fire people even when it is clear that they should. Generally a hiring process is a good hint to the dysfunctions of a team before you join. Panic about bad hires and a quintuple-filtered pipeline is a good sign of weak management and a structural inability to fire.

avip 8y ago

Not sure your 'lemons' qualify as 'bad hires'. I've refrained from defining, as it requires context, but the 2 pillars of badhirism are negative productivity and negative attitude. Being "unskilled", by itself and in void, does not imply a bad hire IMO. We are all "unskilled" occasionally.

Shaanie 8y ago

Lemons can significantly impede a team's velocity and, more importantly, the team's overall happiness. It's difficult to enjoy and take pride in your work when the code base either looks like shit or require that you spend most of your time reviewing/cleaning up the mess the lemons create. Will your standout engineers enjoy working with the lemons?

vonmoltke 8y ago
I could substitute "the business" for "lemons" above and describe many (most?) companies. In that case, what effect are these lemons really having?

louthy 8y ago

Unskilled is a problem of course, but with an unskilled, but ambitious individual, they can be mentored. In my mind a bad hire is someone that has a negative drag effect on the psychology of the work environment or the project. I had one hire who was brought in as a junior dev, thought he was better than he was and that he didn't deserve to do the grunt work he'd been assigned, and then proceeded to constantly bitch about anything he could. He was so negative that when he finally moved on I was super relieved. That psychology of "why even bother" can just sink into people's subconcious and become problematic. It's hard to spot who's going to be like that at an interview though.

inimino 8y ago

Mostly because of bad management and an inability to fire people even when it is clear that they should. Generally a hiring process is a good hint to the dysfunctions of a team before you join. Panic about bad hires and a quintuple-filtered pipeline is a good sign of weak management and a structural inability to fire.