Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[RebeccainGA]

We have one that's going to be PD soon, if my boss has his way. We have four managers in our department - two that are in charge of large groups, one that's got a medium sized group, and then the 'hen with one chick' manager, who literally has one direct report. This manager, I'll call her Polly, has a direct report, Robin, who is equally birdbrained. The two of them are in charge of, ironically, training and communications for our team. Polly's job appointment was weird from the start (she's got no background in training AND no idea what our department does, and keeps trying to make us into her former department) and Robin was the sort that would spend all day doing other things, try to take credit for someone else's work at the end of the day, and got by on charm and appearing busy.

Robin came and sat with me three months ago and was looking for some reports. We showed her a special report we'd done for another department (that was many, many hours of work, very specific to the criteria the other department needed, and something that we COULD NOT replicate, as it had required some special, manual work that wouldn't be feasible again), and another generic report that had the majority of the information from the special report in it. We told her that if she wanted the standard report, we'd be glad to run it for her as often as she liked, and would show her how to run it, but that the special report was totally out of the question.

Three months later, Polly comes back and demands to know why she hasn't gotten her special report yet. When we offer to run the standard report, she refuses to use it. My manager explains that the special report is not an option. She pretends she didn't hear that, and demands it again, copying half the management staff above her.

We're still in the throes of this. It's cracking me up. How many ways can we say 'no, we won't run the special report, it took us three months to do and isn't replicatable quarterly'? I'm hoping my boss has a few more.

[RooRoo]

People in the position to hire usually ask something like "Would you rehire this person?" or "Is this person eligible for rehire?" and saying "NO" gives the new company all the info they need.

And even if they cannot answer the question there is often a tone of voice change or an "ahem" like the other poster mentioned before saying the "I cannot give that info" line.  People give things away without saying anything.

http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=lazily&view=list&filter=type%3Acomic&x=29&y=15

[greencat]

One of my coworkers actually successfully committed PD!  You see, our job involves a great deal of access to sensitive personal information.  Such that our employers cannot have people with criminal backgrounds working in the department.  My newest coworker - who started at the end of May - missed a Monday of work in the middle of June.  He got fired this Monday.  You see, sometime on the Sunday of the weekend before he missed the day of work, he got arrested, and charged with multiple counts of felony battery and resisting arrest.  I suspect it was probably an after-midnight bar fight after a Saturday night out celebrating his first paycheck.

[HorseFreak]

My very small employer is trying to hire a new person for the support staff. One person sent an interesting resume complete with a 6" block of 10 pt text describing duties that seems copied and pasted on the second page. It included duties someone in her position should not and could not do and made us all lift an eyebrow. She was pleasant and honest when phone interviewed so an in-person interview was scheduled. However, when she called back yesterday she was reportedly short and rude with one of the other support staff answered the phone.

This is going to be fun since we'll be down a total of two staff members in 2 weeks and no good leads since my employer doesn't pay well or offer benefits and it's intense work. I'm starting to think it's professional Darwinism to only advertise your open skilled position on Craigslist when you have two months notice to find more staff in order to save $100 and 15 minutes of time despite the rest of your staff's urging to use several other good resources.

[Thipu1]

I may have written about this on an early page of this thread but this one is a doozie. 

We were looking for a new librarian who was both knowledgeable about the Ancient Middle East and technologically savvy. 

We received a resume from someone sounded just right, except for one thing.  His resume and cover letter were obviously typed on an old-fashioned manual typewriter.  You could see the impression of the letters on the back of the paper.

Technologically savvy?  I don't think so. 

[magicdomino]

I may have written about this on an early page of this thread but this one is a doozie. 

We were looking for a new librarian who was both knowledgeable about the Ancient Middle East and technologically savvy. 

We received a resume from someone sounded just right, except for one thing.  His resume and cover letter were obviously typed on an old-fashioned manual typewriter.  You could see the impression of the letters on the back of the paper.

Technologically savvy?  I don't think so.

I have to admit, if all other requirements were good and I had time, I'd interview this candidate and ask about the manual typewriter.  Family heirloom?  Personal preference for personal use?  The smartphone and the printer hate each other?   

[whatsanenigma]

I may have written about this on an early page of this thread but this one is a doozie. 

We were looking for a new librarian who was both knowledgeable about the Ancient Middle East and technologically savvy. 

We received a resume from someone sounded just right, except for one thing.  His resume and cover letter were obviously typed on an old-fashioned manual typewriter.  You could see the impression of the letters on the back of the paper.

Technologically savvy?  I don't think so.

I have to admit, if all other requirements were good and I had time, I'd interview this candidate and ask about the manual typewriter.  Family heirloom?  Personal preference for personal use?  The smartphone and the printer hate each other?   

I am thinking maybe it was an attempt to make her own resume stand out.  A misguided attempt, given the nature of the job, but people try weird things sometimes when they need a job.  Maybe she was even just hoping that the potential employer would wonder why someone with her skills is using a typewriter, and ask for an interview on that basis alone.

ETA: Also, it is much harder to type out a document on a typewriter, even an electric one, than it is to "type" on a computer.  I learned how to type in high school on an actual manual typewriter and IMHO, that was really difficult!  Even though technically you can correct mistakes with those little, I don't know what they are called, white-out on plastic sheets things, if you do it too many times in one document, it's pretty obvious.  And erasable bond doesn't look very professional.

So, I for one, might actually be somewhat impressed that someone managed to actually type the old-fashioned way.

[gramma dishes]

Or maybe his computer was having a meltdown and he wanted to get that resume out there fast, so he used the only other method available to him. 

It's also MUCH harder to type on a typewriter.  Corrections are a bear!  So I think I'd be inclined to call him in for the interview just out of curiosity if nothing else! 

[Outdoor Girl]

It does show poor judgement, though, which would be a concern for me in the hiring process.  Manual typewriter =/= technologically savvy, in my mind.

[cwm]

I'm actually quite technologically savvy. But I don't have a printer at home. If I had a typewriter, I'd absolutely type on it for professional things. It shows excellent skills a typist, which is hard to come by these days. Think about how often you use the backspace key. I also grew up with typewriters around the house, and I love the sound they make.

When I pulled a stint at a legal office, we still used a typewriter for some official documents because the formatting was much easier on it (modern electric one with a backspace key and programmable formatting) than wrestling with the out of date word processing software on the office computer. I physically COULD get the word processing software to center my text, but it was much easier to do it on the typewriter. You'd say you wanted something centered, type the line of text, hit a button, and it would automatically calculate how far of a margin to leave to begin typing. You could do the same thing with right aligned text.

I wouldn't necessarily equate typewritten resumes as being not technologically savvy, I see it rather that they have an appreciation for older things.

[MrTango]

I wouldn't necessarily equate typewritten resumes as being not technologically savvy, I see it rather that they have an appreciation for older things.

I think this would actually be a good quality in a librarian.  Personally, I'd at least want to talk to the candidate with a phone interview (even if you aren't doing phone screenings in general). 

[RebeccainGA]

I wouldn't necessarily equate typewritten resumes as being not technologically savvy, I see it rather that they have an appreciation for older things.

I think this would actually be a good quality in a librarian.  Personally, I'd at least want to talk to the candidate with a phone interview (even if you aren't doing phone screenings in general). 

I'd agree - look at (as a very techy, geeky example) McGee on NCIS - he writes novels on a typewriter, and is a hacker professionally. I'm an IT person who prefers a fountain pen. I'd say that they are likely a quirky sort, and that may translate into more interesting coworkers. I'd at least call them.

[thedudeabides]

I wouldn't necessarily equate typewritten resumes as being not technologically savvy, I see it rather that they have an appreciation for older things.

I think this would actually be a good quality in a librarian.  Personally, I'd at least want to talk to the candidate with a phone interview (even if you aren't doing phone screenings in general). 

I'd agree - look at (as a very techy, geeky example) McGee on NCIS - he writes novels on a typewriter, and is a hacker professionally. I'm an IT person who prefers a fountain pen. I'd say that they are likely a quirky sort, and that may translate into more interesting coworkers. I'd at least call them.

I agree. Geekery abounds in a wide variety of forms, and dismissing an otherwise qualified candidate because he may express his with a love for older technology might well be a major loss. An appreciation and knowledge of tech can take many forms.

[wolfie]

I wouldn't necessarily equate typewritten resumes as being not technologically savvy, I see it rather that they have an appreciation for older things.

I think this would actually be a good quality in a librarian.  Personally, I'd at least want to talk to the candidate with a phone interview (even if you aren't doing phone screenings in general). 

I'd agree - look at (as a very techy, geeky example) McGee on NCIS - he writes novels on a typewriter, and is a hacker professionally. I'm an IT person who prefers a fountain pen. I'd say that they are likely a quirky sort, and that may translate into more interesting coworkers. I'd at least call them.

That is the problem with the economy right now. You have one spot, you got 150 resumes - you need a way to trim them down so quirky goes in the round can. You know you will have way more qualified candidates then you know what to do with so you don't waste your time on "could be a good fit" - you go straight to "definitely has all qualifications".

[Carotte]

Shouldn't the technologically savvy part be in his resume anyway?
If you base yourself on the fact that the person used Words (just used, not know how to really actually use) then you're in for some bad surprises.

If under 'technical' he put that he knows and is proficient with every environment (say windows, mac and linux), can use and help with word processing, research programs, know about setting up networks or things like that..., I don't see why you should trust him less than someone who wrote the same thing but printed it on a computer.

I'm betting technologically savvy for a job like that goes beyond 'I can turn on a computer and go on facebook'.