Saturday, April 10, 2010

I've been hired, now I'll misbehave!

Executive level job applicants are just as likely to be useless, incompetent, lazy, and stupid as entry level applicants.

By the time a shortlist is presented to Mine Host each candidate has undergone considerable filtering and investigation. Hiring senior appointments is not an easy process.

At least 24 hours of Mine Host's own time is then invested in every candidate on the shortlist.

Distressingly, about Four in every Five who is hired turn out to be incapable of doing the job. Degrees of incompetence/stupidity are varied. Some actually are completely useless, this is one of those:

A new manager was appointed for the Diver's Arms. She lasted Two days. Mine Host can only blame himself, for her resume did state that she was a mature age law student, though her interest in "human rights" issues was dealt with somewhat more obliquely.

The resume said much else, including 30-odd years of good work history, but that one point should have flagged to Mine Host that the candidate was not psychologically suitable for a command position.

It didn't take long to show. About Ten minutes in fact.

The first day was spent investigating and shortlisting for a new coffee supplier.
This alone meant she was for the high jump.

Mine Host was coping with realisation of the enormity of the mistake he had made, when she dropped an even bigger clanger;

She wouldn't be able to "formally take up the position" until "tribal elders" entered the premises, held a "welcome to country ceremony" and "formally welcomed her" to the premises.

This did it.

For several reasons:
1. "Formal" commencement of the position (including some key responsibilities) was to be delayed until some hocus pocus ceremony, however formal commencement of salary was to immediate!
2. The land under the Diver's Arms, being "dry" until the utilisation of modern water reticulation technology, was not acknowledged, or used in any way by pre-historic peoples. A no-man's land between the lands of Three tribes, it is now claimed by all Three tribes. Which tribe was going to conduct the "ceremony" and what would this do to relations between the business and the other Two tribes?
3. The concept of "welcome to country" ceremony is unknown to any of the Three tribes. Such a ceremony, likely the first conducted by any of the Three, would lack gravitas, and be conducted by some over-educated political agitator rather than traditional elders (who won't invent new traditions).
4. It is Mine Host, as boss, who decides who is on/off the payroll, and when they come & go.

No comments: