“Your new supervisor?” I asked.
“Yes,” Stella explained. “Everyone on the interview team agreed this was the best candidate, but she’s been in the role for two months now, plenty of time for adjustment and it’s just not working out.”
“And this candidate had worked at this level before?”
“Well, not really, but she said she was ready for it. That’s why she was leaving her old job, not enough challenge in it.”
“This is a supervisor position, what’s the time span?”
“Nine months,” Stella replied.
“Tell me, what is the longest task?” I pulled out a piece of paper to make some notes.
“It’s scheduling,” she continued. “Some of our equipment is very expensive, difficult to get and difficult to move from one job to the next. It can cost us $15,000 just for the riggers to relocate some of the pieces. So we schedule our logistics out six to nine months. And when we schedule it, we stick to plan. Too expensive to do otherwise.”
“And your candidate provided evidence of nine month time span work in the past?”
“Evidence? No, but she assured us she was up to the task.”
“up to the task” with her potential possibly and placing a candidate with a deficit in applied capacity (lacking experience, training, commitment, etc…) to achieving the 9month task will only result in stress.
This happens too often people are promoted/hired and just keep spinning into a doom loop of “trying to make it happen”.
People cannot do what they do not know how to do…they only default to their highest level of training. And experience, training and effort (that is proper) creates an increase in the default.
Mike, Doom-loop! An apt description. -TF
…ouch…my first reaction, was “oh goodness sakes!! what are they thinking”. I can relate to that, I have hired enough people on their word, vs the skills needed and have learned the painful way and that is what Stella just learned – FIRE NOW and hire slowly.
Greg, Good to hear from you. Ouch…like pulling a band-aid off slowly. The pain continues. -TF