“You may have hired the wrong person,” I said, “but you haven’t figured out exactly what’s wrong. You have a decision to make, with three alternatives.

• Live with the situation, and continue to complain about it.
• Terminate or reassign the person to a different role.
• Redefine the role within the capability of the person you hired.

“You know, I can’t live with it,” Stella replied. “I, personally, have to fill the gap for any underperformance. And I have my own responsibilities. Every minute I steal away to cover for my supervisor is a minute away from my own tasks. I don’t see any way around it. This job really requires someone with a nine month Time Span. Our new supervisor has only demonstrated capability at around two months. I cannot take her under my wing and hold her hand.”

“What are you going to do?”

Stella’s disbelief faded to reality. “You’re right. That’s what I did during my interview, here. I tried to steer the conversation to my best qualities. I mean, I answered their questions, truthfully, but, you know, they didn’t really ask that many. They spent most of the time describing the job, what they expected and how great the company was.”

“You probably got more out of the interview than they did,” I replied. “So, what can we do different?”

“Isn’t it a little late, we already hired the wrong person.”

Stella was surprised. “Well, I don’t think he lied to me, but I guess I didn’t get what I needed from the interview.”

“Don’t feel bad. Most of the people on your interview team didn’t do any better than you. It’s a combination of things,” I consoled. “First, candidates do much more preparation than you do. They re-write their resume customized to your job posting, have others review it, spend time with headhunters who coach them on what to say, and read interview books all designed for one specific thing. To beat you in the job interview.”

“What do you mean, evidence?” Stella asked. “It’s an interview. If someone says they are up to the task, that they are interested in the challenge, that they really want the responsibility, what more can you get? I mean, I asked those hard questions.”

“Exactly what were the questions you asked,” I wanted to know. “Let’s list out those hard questions.”

“Okay,” Stella started. “I asked if he really thought he was up to the task? I explained just how difficult the job would be and asked him if he would really be interested in the challenge? I asked him why he wanted that level of responsibility?”

“So, you asked him the perfect questions, so he could lie to you?” -TF

“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.”