Faith, Purple haired feminist 🧋 
I wish more people got hired just for being decent people you want to have around instead of everything having to be about ROI all the time. One of my favorite coworkers is the local office manager. She's probably the "least important" by capitalist BS metrics but she's also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. She makes me want to show up to work.
Jenny (cozy node) 
@faithisleaping I wish that too, because I have practically zero R on anyone's I and I've already been crying this morning about the fact that I'm letting defeatism stop me from even trying half the time. :(
Maeve Ryan Elainska@faithisleaping “I want to get to work so I can see my coworkers” is a feeling unavailable to far too many people.
MayaMayaMaya@faithisleaping the dumb thing about it is "makes employees want to show up to work" is one of the most valuable things to have!
caffeinatedgeek 🇺🇦🇨🇦
@faithisleaping working with good people is priceless.
Alex, the Hearth Fire@faithisleaping I wish that were the measure of "culture fit"
Very Human Robot@faithisleaping that's literally in the job description of an office manager, though. It's one of their required traits!
AJ Sadauskas@faithisleaping I'd go a step further.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.
There's an argument to be made that companies should hire people who have particular desirable traits, and then train them up to fill roles or perform tasks as needed.
So you would, for example, recruit someone who is good at problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with people, and then you'd train them to be a project manager.
Or you would recruit someone who is creative and artistic, and then train them to be your graphic designer or marketer.
So instead of hiring people with particular skills to fill particular roles, you'd instead hire people with desirable traits and then train them to fill roles as needed.
mcSlibinas@aj @faithisleaping like building football team? 🤔
JoelBarr@aj @faithisleaping I like that idea. I teach high school and I think schools at all levels can do more to help students identify their interests and aptitudes and start working on the skills that support those. They still have to study all the subjects to have a broad base of knowledge, but learning about their own personalities and strengths can help guide them as they start to specialize. Plus kids love finding things they're good at.
Dr. 🏔️❄️🗺️📊🎨⛷️🧗🏻♂️🛶I absolutely agree - however, I've kind of hit the other end, where I'm now locked out because "not the right guy".
The approach has a flip side: if the role becomes vacant and someone from outside turns up with all the tickets, it's harder for them because they're not yet mates.
It's a crushing loop: too skilled / not skilled enough / hmm not quite a fit could probably be but we know [person] over there.
Doubly weird as a field scientist, who has to have every skill..
**I don't have *every skill*. A ... broad array ... is necessary for traversing between shipping manifests and writing papers and inducting people into power tool usage and writing for grants and living in close company with a lot of other people for weeks on end.
The useful summary might be: I totally agree that hiring practice should look for more creativity and flexibility. Be more creative and flexible,
Alex Zakhlestin 🇵🇹@aj @faithisleaping I feel that most of the small companies still hire people this way. We absolutely did.
Fortunately, not everyone is bound to the VC world.
Fortunately, not everyone is bound to the VC world.
clewThere’s another thing — if you’re “fancy” enough being a glue person means you “have leadership and management potential” and *do* get hired for it. (Conversely, I was once in a company that promoted from admin and front desk into project management when it noticed people doing the work, even if they didn’t have a degree or “looked wrong”. It was AMAZING.)
fanksway@aj @faithisleaping Judging a skill set is significantly easier than judging character. Furthermore, you rely on the faulty premise that character traits are set in stone.
Morgan ⚧️@aj @faithisleaping I'd love that because then I would no longer be simultaneously too old to get a job (not in school) and too young to get a job (no experience)
I frequently come across job descriptions that I think I could do well but I just haven't done specifically before (or haven't done in school or at a job but have done at home) so I'm completely unappealing to the hiring managers or the LLM they're using to filter out resumes.
I frequently come across job descriptions that I think I could do well but I just haven't done specifically before (or haven't done in school or at a job but have done at home) so I'm completely unappealing to the hiring managers or the LLM they're using to filter out resumes.
Mathaetaes@faithisleaping the irony is that these people usually *are* great for ROI. They may not be the most obvious, but some folks are facilitators that don’t do much on their own, but they act as force multipliers when working with other people.
You take them out, and your ROI plummets.
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@faithisleaping In the old days you used to be able to hire someone because at interview you thought "yes, we need someone like that to fill the role of office earth mother since so-and-so left", but with HR's insistence on things like uniform scoring charts these days it can't be as easy.
zkarj@TimWardCam @faithisleaping @aligorith a former team leader told me how she got a job in the team.
Do you drink beer?
Yes.
Do you like rugby?
Yes.
Welcome aboard.
Jan 
@faithisleaping Urgh, this resonates with me so much!🥹
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for expressing this.
🌸 lumi-nhac 
🌱@faithisleaping this is sadly not what capitalism optimizes for, it optimizes for profit, so anything that is against that profit even a bit will eventually get stripped away
on a smaller scale, there will be deviations to that, but on a larger scale, these get smoothed out
but yes, i agree with this 
on a smaller scale, there will be deviations to that, but on a larger scale, these get smoothed out
but yes, i agree with this
@faithisleaping I disagree. It seems from my perspective that the socially adept excel at rising through the ranks, while those who struggle with the political game flounder. And I have noticed that most people judge the kindness in a way that is antithetical to integrity. Regardless, the reward for being a "decent person" should be intrinsic.
@fanksway I said nothing about people who play political games. People whose primary skill is navigating corporate politics for their own personal gain can fuck right off.
@faithisleaping I definitely agree with the sentiment. But it's naive to imply one would can discern political games from sincere kindness. Maybe I am just cynical.
@fanksway Oh, there are absolutely two-faced people in this world.
The person I referenced, however, is not one. Her kindness is genuine. And she plays zero political games. She's not even in a position where playing politics would do her any good. She's just very good to have around.
The original thesis was that focusing on skills and ROI doesn't necessarily lead to having the best people. And I'm very much including "good manager" in the skills category. Lots of the people who climb through politics do so because people above them think they have certain valuable skills. Hell, one of the worst types of corporate political climbing is people who convince the technically naive above them that they have more skills and get more done than they actually do.
Riley S. Faelan@fanksway You know, that's an organisation problem. In a better organisation, there could be a division of labour: the socially skilled would be doing the social laddering, and those skilled at the work, would do the work laddering.