Anti-Sabotage Your Hiring

Anti-Sabotage Your Hiring
creatingvalue.substack.com

Ah yes, finally we’ve uncovered the real problem. Good grief.

I agree with the bit about people who proceed too cautiously and need too much approval. However this can be a type of worker, and it can also be induced by the workplace. Employees who try to be effective and productive only to get their hand slapped, or wind up in territorial BS, are liable to have this reaction. Changing how you hire won’t improve the situation in this case.

> Some employees simply can’t work fast; it’s not in their nature. Sometimes this is because of years of bad habits at worse companies, but more often it’s a product of something simpler: fear.

Perhaps the solution is to cultivate a culture of openness and create a collaborative rather than extractive and competitive environment within your company.

> Some employees just aren’t able to move without exact instructions; if something goes wrong they’d be in trouble, which is something they don’t want to deal with (or can’t deal with, emotionally).

Perhaps the solution is to cultivate a culture that failure is a learning experience.

> While these employees ask for permission, other employees just do - sometimes mistakes are made, but more often you end up with more work, more seized opportunities and an organization that makes magic happen more often then the competitors.

Perhaps many if not most engineers actually love the autonomy to identify and solve problems. Workplace autonomy is a function of management and experience level. Many people new in their careers need guidance, but whenever I see a team that isn't acting autonomously its because they are expressly forbidden from making decisions such as what to work on by the organization.

Coasters exist, but they stick out like a sore thumb in a small team.