Who’s the Boss?

“There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job.”
-George Crane

Some hiring managers are also the CEOs and owners of their respective businesses. Others have people they report to, department managers, division heads, regional managers, etc. In either case, you may think that you are the boss because you have ultimate power over which job applicants get hired and which are shown the door.

To a certain extent, that’s true. If you get a bad feeling about someone during an interview, whether it’s because of an ill-timed yawn or other faux pas on his part, you don’t have to bring him on board.

If you’re doing interviews by yourself, though, you should give some thought to whether or not you’re dismissing potential hires too quickly. Are you letting personal biases and preferences stop you from hiring people who could be producing excellent results that benefit the company as a whole just because you find them annoying?

It’s not against the law to reject an applicant that rubs you the wrong way. If you don’t like someone for no reason at all, that’s certainly not against the law. It’s when the reason is based on the points protected by discrimination (sex, religion, age, race, sexual orientation, etc.) that it becomes a problem.

I’m just suggesting that you get a second opinion, especially in cases where you find yourself ready to eliminate an otherwise perfectly qualified candidate but can’t put your finger on exactly why.

In the grand scheme of the way most businesses work, your employees are the real bosses. They make your life easier by doing the work that no manager wants to do. They are the ones interacting with customers, doing the work necessary to keep your company afloat, and if they all quit tomorrow, you would probably have a lot of ‘splaining to do.

Keep that in mind as you’re deciding the fate of applicants vying for your open positions. If these people will add a lot of value to our business, how much does it matter that they have an annoying eye twitch?