The old saying goes that crazy and good are born brothers.
And so, when you think to be good to someone, you turn out to be crazy...
What happened to me?
Today I received a phone call informing me that one of my team colleagues, who works in a remote location over which I have no control, is leaving the company. Again
That's why I gave this post this title 🙂
Two years ago, in the place of a colleague who went to work in a foreign company, I hired a young man recommended by him.
Young, hardworking, smart, ready to learn, willing to work, to improve, before marriage.
One would think, the perfect young candidate.
I thought that too 🙂
After the onboarding and familiarization with the job, I realized that he is not in the subject as he should have been according to the recommendations, but OK, he is young, he will learn what is needed.
Months passed, but his progress was not too visible. Okay, maybe I expected too much, maybe he needs a little more time...
Thinking like that, instead of an invitation to his wedding, I was handed his resignation.
He wasn't even there for 9 months.
Due to the need for more money, he could not stay with us, he found some field work that brought him twice as much money (for three times as much work, but well, that's his decision).
We started looking for new candidates and after a weak response, we filled the position with a candidate who showed little promise, but we needed to have him, whatever he was.
After 6 months, we realized that we had to start the process of looking for an employee again, because we had to cancel cooperation with this one.
We interviewed several candidates, some serious technicians with experience came forward, but his wishes and our possibilities did not agree.
The search lasted for two months, when the young man from the beginning of the story contacted us.
The project for which he was hired for the field position came to an end and he was fired.
The complicated situation he has at home, the costs of the divorce - after only 6 months he divorced his wife (and her mother), the other costs of life, forced him to reach out to us, to return him to the position he was in.
"I had to do a better-paid job, girlfriend, and a little later my wife pressured me to do it, now that I'm divorced, I need some stable and secure job that I'll do for years...".
At that moment, we believe that his confession is true and that these are indeed his wishes.
We are closing the competition, thanking all contacted candidates and accepting him as a candidate who knows the job and the processes he needs to work on.
We decide on the line of least resistance (we certainly won't spend a lot of time with him on trainings and workshops), because we won't waste our time. He can immediately start working independently.
And he started.
With very little training, for jobs on some systems that he forgot to do, we very quickly train him to do them independently.
Months passed, it seemed that he was taking the "New opportunity" a little more seriously, although he still works on the "push", for some activities, he needs to be pressed, but he does them anyway...
He shows initiative to complete the HTZ equipment and tools he uses and it seems to me that there are indications that he plans to stay a little longer this time.
He still mentions the difficult financial situation at home, his sick father...
After 6 months of work, I give him positive feedback, which affects the increase in his earnings.
But obviously, that increase in earnings cannot meet his needs.
The call he sent to me, with an apology for betraying our trust and another opportunity, was a call in which he justified his departure again.
Higher earnings in a field position abroad. Same situation as last year.
How could I not have guessed that?
Perhaps we missed a more serious, better worker among the candidates we had at the competition.
If... But now it's too late for such thinking.
I'm sorry that I turned out to be naive, giving him a second chance, to him who didn't prove himself to be a quality employee (a quality worker is not someone to whom you have to give tasks from A to Z every morning, a quality worker is someone who knows what his job is and who will perform without pressing).
For this reason, I don't regret his departure excessively, I only regret myself and the HR department of our company, which now has to deal with competitions and the selection of new candidates.
And through interviews and listening to all kinds of experts, wouldn't they find a better one among all of them who would be ready and willing to work with us.
There is something good in the fact that he is leaving. We will practice a little negotiation and interviewing skills 😄 and additionally we will examine the market in order to understand how much the positions are in demand in the branch of the industry in which I work.
His departure and the demands he made, the needs he had, will guide us towards the election of a new colleague in the coming period.
I said to him: "You were given one opportunity, which you failed (shame on you). You were also given another (shame on me), believe me, there won't be a third. I wish you the best of luck in your new job, and that you find it what are you looking for" and closed the chapter with his file in our company.