Purple Pitchfork
  • Podcast
  • About Chris
  • Tools
  • Donate

Gets and No-Gets

5/7/2015

0 Comments

 
When I was eighteen, I had a job delivering futons in Seattle. Mostly the job was riding around in the truck, because I was too young for the insurance company to cover me as a driver, and occasionally jumping out to carry a futon on my back up several flights of stairs.

One day, the guy who drove the truck turned to me and said, “Chris, there are only two kind of people in this world. Gets and no-gets. Be a get.”

As much as we try in the hiring process, we are unlikely to bypass the no-gets. Hiring is an insanely hard job, and even people who are hired and paid to do the best job of hiring still make mistakes – and lots of them. And despite our best processes and intentions, and despite the most intensive process of reviewing applications and interviewing, the no-gets slip through.

When bringing on a new hire, be ready for the idea that you’ve made a mistake. Identify mis-hires quickly, and move them on out rapidly – in general, employees don’t improve from their starting point when it comes to fundamental characteristics. Non-listeners don’t turn into listeners, and slow walkers don’t turn into fast walkers; slow bunchers can improve, but hustle doesn’t.

Most small farms don’t have the slack in their staffing to pay for no-gets. If you’ve put two weeks into grooming a new employee and don’t see significant progress, it’s time to move them on.

(By the way, terminating someone’s employment sucks. But it sucks worse the longer you keep a poor-performing employee on board - for you and for the employee. “This position isn’t a good fit” is much more believable at the end of week two than at the end of week six.)

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Sponsors

    img_purple pitchfork_sponsor_vermont compost

    Archives

    2016
    2015

    2014
    2013
    2012
    2011

    Announcement
    Business Philosophy
    Business Strategy
    CSA
    Entrepreneurism
    Farm Equipment
    Farm Finances
    Farming Techniques
    Farm Labor
    Farm Systems
    Farm Wisdom
    Food Safety
    Government
    Health
    Irrigation
    Management
    Marketing
    Organic Certification
    Organic Farming
    Organization
    Pricing
    Records Management
    Scaling Up
    Value

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Contact
Copyright © 2018, Purple Pitchfork. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy