[kabdib]

I agree, it's narrow-minded.

But it's SURVIVAL.

The times I've had to work with mis-hires have been awful, miserable and very depressing times. Like, they made me not want to come into work.

I was once the "human grep" for the mis-hire that sat across the hall from me. Constant questions; apologetic questions, but continual and unrelenting and stupid questions. Q: "Where does this function get called?" Me: "Search for it, please." Q: "What are the arguments to function X?" Me: "Please go find the function and see." Every few minutes, for MONTHS. Nothing I did seemed to help; this person was simply addicted to asking people about stuff that was literally in front of their face. Management didn't help ("this person is doing negative work"). Pleading didn't help. Getting them to save up questions for an "on the hour" chat didn't help. I wound up leaving that job.

Should we help people in a lower "letter grade"? Yes, if they are teachable. Should we suffer? No.

The simplest thing to do: Hire people better than you are, in general. Really try to do that and you'll find that your company won't rot from within, and people will be happier and tend not to leave.

[tbrownaw]

So the only possibilities are that someone is practically perfect in every way (A), or entirely incompetent (B-Z)?

[pistle]

People can change at human timescales. Businesses die at business timescales. Business timescales in technology are shorter than human timescales. So, lower downs could become higher ups, but not by the ship date.

[tbrownaw]

Small project timescales are shorter than human timescales.

I've had my current job for 7 years. Most of our work in in SQL. When I started I went from knowing approximately nothing of SQL to being productive to helping other team members in a few months. This matches what I've heard in other places, that it can take 1-6 weeks to become minimally productive (as in, not a net loss to the team) in a new language and 6 months to become competent.

But, my employer is not a Startuplandia single-project exocompany. We haven't renamed "project manager" to "CEO" or "Director" to "Investor". We have an actual sustainable business model, rather than "exit or bust". We have people running the place, who have been around long enough to understand beyond the latest hype cycle.

[kabdib]

No, but

- try to hire people who are better than you

- remember that people do grow; recognize potential, but don't assume that someone can be fixed

The sense that someone is merely adequate is a killer. When I'm on the fence about hiring someone, the correct answer is "No hire."