I was sitting next to an elderly man at a bar in a casino in Reno one fine evening. I didn’t know that this seasoned gentleman had been the manager of the bar for decades. He had wisdom beneath those gray hairs, and lots of it. I told him about my business issues, and he sat me down and started to spout out common sense wisdom that changed my life.
He said that you can take someone who doesn’t have skills and train them.
But, if someone has a bad attitude, it is generally not possible to fix — so, just get rid of them as fast as you can.
You’ll be glad you did!
In my business, it is hard to just fire people who are working on complicated projects. Bar tenders are dime a dozen. You can have 100 prospects waiting in line if you have to fire someone. But, programmers are harder to find. The majority don’t even answer phone calls — ever!
In any case, in a company environment, one person with a bad attitude can infect the other workers with a bad attitude. They can also singlehandedly change the entire work environment or vibration. It is not worth it. If they are that bad — get rid of them. On the other hand, nobody is perfect. So, don’t be too unreasonable; otherwise you will have to fire everyone, including yourself, and then divorse your wife, and disown your parents — and your cat!
What I learned is that a group of people attracts more people of similar nature. If you have a spiritual group where everyone is mean, then the new people joining the group will tend to be mean — or at least you will alienate the nice people, so the ones you are left with are mean. If you have an outsourcing company, you can not afford this reality. Have nice people, so that when you hire new people, you will be able to attract good ones, and keep them. Think ahead!