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agonyaunt2023-06-06 01:44 pm
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2023-06-06 01:44 pm
Entry tags:
ASk a Manager: "should I hire a qualified candidate who comes with a ton of baggage?"
[poster note: I have been taking a break from AAM but I went there to look something up and found this glorious letter.]
A reader asks:
My team recently created a new position. A colleague from another department got wind of this and asked when I planned to advertise the vacancy. I’m in no hurry to fill the position, so I said “hopefully by the end of the year.” He let me know that his wife is very qualified for the position and that I should consider her. I haven’t even written the job description yet, so it’s impossible for him to know whether or not his wife is qualified for it. A few days later, he asked if I’d advertised the position yet and said to keep him posted because he wants to make sure his wife gets in. A day or so after that, he handed me her resume and assured me again that she’d be the right person for the job (remember the job doesn’t even exist yet).
Here is where I should tell you that this particular colleague has been an unkind, uncooperative, disrespectful, manipulative pain in my backside the entire time we’ve worked together. I would never accept any professional advice from him, least of all give him input on my hiring decisions. If I hired his wife, I would not put it past him to utilize their relationship as leverage in unprofessional ways.
The wife emailed me a day or so later and informed me that she already has a job, but is considering changing fields and asked for an appointment so that I could tell her more about the [non-existent] job to help her “determine if it would be a good fit” for her. I was half-amused, half-incredulous and had 30 minutes to spare, so I accepted the appointment. The entire interaction was underwhelming. She’d ask vague questions like “so, what does your department do?” and expect me to expound for her. She didn’t dress professionally, obviously hadn’t browsed the website before coming in, etc.
I did eventually post the position, the wife applied, and it turns out she is actually an intriguing candidate on paper and has perhaps the most relevant experience of all the applicants. I haven’t begun interviewing yet, but my initial instinct is not to touch her with a 10-foot pole (because of the husband) and that instinct is reinforced by the “informational interview” we already had.
On the one hand, perhaps it isn’t fair to allow my opinion of the husband to impact the wife’s candidacy. But on the other hand, she involved her husband in her candidacy from the beginning, so I don’t think she can reasonably expect her candidacy to be evaluated in a vacuum. Hiring her could turn out fine. But it could also be a complete disaster, and I’m very concerned about the latter coming true (and have good reason to believe it could). Where do you stand on this?
Green responds:
I stand on the side of not hiring her.
You already have a bunch of information about her that says she's not impressive. People can be qualified on paper and still have undesirable traits that take them out of the running, and it sounds like that's the case here.
Frankly, the situation with her husband would be reason enough not to hire her, even if she were impressive on her own. You're entitled to decide that it would be too messy to hire a colleague's spouse. You'd be entitled to decide that even if your colleague were a lovely person and easy to work with -- because there's potential for tension and problems, like if things didn't work out and you had to let her go. But add that you already know him not to operate in a professional way, and you have a ton of reasons to decide not to risk the problems that could result.
On top of that, she had an opportunity to impress you and she didn't prepare or take it seriously.
And you're allowed to factor in what your experience with her has been so far. You're not obligated to consider only her formal application. Insider connections like this are a double-edged sword for candidates -- they can provide an in, but they can also provide additional data that makes the hiring manager realize they don't want to hire the person. She and her husband chose to use the connection, and that means they get everything that comes with that -- more of your time and an advance meeting, yes, but also the bad impression that she left you with.
If the problems with her husband weren't in the mix, I'd say you should go ahead and interview her -- because who knows, maybe you'd see a different side of her, and also it's helpful for your colleague to feel like she at least got a hearing. But if you're already sure you don't want to hire her -- and it sounds like that's what your gut is saying -- it's fine to just decline to interview her and explain you have a competitive pool and she's not the right match with what you're looking for.
If you get pushback from your colleague, and you probably will, you can say, "I was glad to meet with Jane when you suggested it, but I can't really discuss a hiring decision with a candidate's spouse." And if he pushes after that, consider saying, "If I were still considering Jane, this would make it almost impossible for me to hire her -- because if I were to hire a colleague's spouse, I'd need to be certain we were all going to have good professional boundaries."
Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.
A reader asks:
My team recently created a new position. A colleague from another department got wind of this and asked when I planned to advertise the vacancy. I’m in no hurry to fill the position, so I said “hopefully by the end of the year.” He let me know that his wife is very qualified for the position and that I should consider her. I haven’t even written the job description yet, so it’s impossible for him to know whether or not his wife is qualified for it. A few days later, he asked if I’d advertised the position yet and said to keep him posted because he wants to make sure his wife gets in. A day or so after that, he handed me her resume and assured me again that she’d be the right person for the job (remember the job doesn’t even exist yet).
Here is where I should tell you that this particular colleague has been an unkind, uncooperative, disrespectful, manipulative pain in my backside the entire time we’ve worked together. I would never accept any professional advice from him, least of all give him input on my hiring decisions. If I hired his wife, I would not put it past him to utilize their relationship as leverage in unprofessional ways.
The wife emailed me a day or so later and informed me that she already has a job, but is considering changing fields and asked for an appointment so that I could tell her more about the [non-existent] job to help her “determine if it would be a good fit” for her. I was half-amused, half-incredulous and had 30 minutes to spare, so I accepted the appointment. The entire interaction was underwhelming. She’d ask vague questions like “so, what does your department do?” and expect me to expound for her. She didn’t dress professionally, obviously hadn’t browsed the website before coming in, etc.
I did eventually post the position, the wife applied, and it turns out she is actually an intriguing candidate on paper and has perhaps the most relevant experience of all the applicants. I haven’t begun interviewing yet, but my initial instinct is not to touch her with a 10-foot pole (because of the husband) and that instinct is reinforced by the “informational interview” we already had.
On the one hand, perhaps it isn’t fair to allow my opinion of the husband to impact the wife’s candidacy. But on the other hand, she involved her husband in her candidacy from the beginning, so I don’t think she can reasonably expect her candidacy to be evaluated in a vacuum. Hiring her could turn out fine. But it could also be a complete disaster, and I’m very concerned about the latter coming true (and have good reason to believe it could). Where do you stand on this?
Green responds:
I stand on the side of not hiring her.
You already have a bunch of information about her that says she's not impressive. People can be qualified on paper and still have undesirable traits that take them out of the running, and it sounds like that's the case here.
Frankly, the situation with her husband would be reason enough not to hire her, even if she were impressive on her own. You're entitled to decide that it would be too messy to hire a colleague's spouse. You'd be entitled to decide that even if your colleague were a lovely person and easy to work with -- because there's potential for tension and problems, like if things didn't work out and you had to let her go. But add that you already know him not to operate in a professional way, and you have a ton of reasons to decide not to risk the problems that could result.
On top of that, she had an opportunity to impress you and she didn't prepare or take it seriously.
And you're allowed to factor in what your experience with her has been so far. You're not obligated to consider only her formal application. Insider connections like this are a double-edged sword for candidates -- they can provide an in, but they can also provide additional data that makes the hiring manager realize they don't want to hire the person. She and her husband chose to use the connection, and that means they get everything that comes with that -- more of your time and an advance meeting, yes, but also the bad impression that she left you with.
If the problems with her husband weren't in the mix, I'd say you should go ahead and interview her -- because who knows, maybe you'd see a different side of her, and also it's helpful for your colleague to feel like she at least got a hearing. But if you're already sure you don't want to hire her -- and it sounds like that's what your gut is saying -- it's fine to just decline to interview her and explain you have a competitive pool and she's not the right match with what you're looking for.
If you get pushback from your colleague, and you probably will, you can say, "I was glad to meet with Jane when you suggested it, but I can't really discuss a hiring decision with a candidate's spouse." And if he pushes after that, consider saying, "If I were still considering Jane, this would make it almost impossible for me to hire her -- because if I were to hire a colleague's spouse, I'd need to be certain we were all going to have good professional boundaries."
Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.