Too Laissez Faire?

Paul Downs, author of Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business muses in his August 8 LinkedIn post  about a question(s) he heard from a potential employee during an interview. ” Do you have a dress code? Do you do a credit check? Do you do a background check? Do you do drug testing?” His answers can be paraphrased as “no, no, no, no” with some interesting background detail that adds context.

When we are looking for a remarkable person to collaborate with, hire, marry, or recommend do we use substitute questions to confirm or deny our judgement? In 2015, Paul’s response to the final question “We don’t do them. Frankly, I don’t care whether you smoke a joint on Saturday, as long as you come to work ready to go on Monday… But if you ever show up here drunk or high, I’ll fire you on the spot. If I even suspect there’s a problem, that’s when I’ll test you.” It seemed to the interviewee as a fair policy and it seems like a great judgement frame for other situations that we encounter on a daily basis. If the words, actions, or intent don’t impact the reputation, efficacy or productivity of the relationship should we hold them as metrics?

I don’t own anyone (or am I owned). If Joe’s performance in our contract is stellar, should I care what he is doing on Friday night? If Mary is always ready, always on time, always proactive is it any of my concern how she spends her money? I think not. I have enough suspicion to quell in every situation, I don’t need to be adding data from unrelated fields or sources.

Make Today Remarkable,

B