13 ms·
Pigeon-holing people is a great way to make them into lesser human beings, and companies into the insensitive bureaucracies that good talent loves to avoid. Ta
by calinet6 14y ago
Pigeon-holing people is a great way to make them into lesser human beings, and companies into the insensitive bureaucracies that good talent loves to avoid.
Talk to the person for pete's sake. If they're underperforming or their net contribution to the company (via culture or performance) is negative, then work with them to improve or work with them to change jobs. Maybe they need a different position. Maybe they need to leave and start their own company.
But if you label them, put them down, and attempt to deal with them "as a problem" rather than as a human being, then yes, you will have problems.
This is just an example of inept management of talent, nothing more. I encourage everyone to disregard this article except as a case study in how not to manage people, and try to do better.
- calinet6 14y agoI'm going to reply to myself with a counter-argument. I just remembered the "No Asshole Rule," which is a great book with similar themes. I think there's a difference between someone who is simply an asshole, and someone who is tenacious and sometimes a jerk to management (which the OP article seems to show) and disagrees openly. The latter might be an asset, the former is almost always a net negative. The point is, you have to evaluate these situations on their merits. If someone really is dividing the company and producing a negative effect, then obviously you need to deal with that in some way. But if they're not destroying the culture (indeed most are adding to it in some way if they care about the company and work hard), then it's not a cut-and-dry decision. However, the No Asshole Rule makes some very good points along these lines, so perhaps there is merit to the idea of avoiding jerks at any costs from the beginning.