Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Hiring new people? Want to them to know everything that people who already work here know? There is no easy answer, but there are some answers.

When look at the Help Wanted ads, I frequently encounter employers who want to hire people who already work for them. The ads are easy to decipher as they list all the tools, many of which are obscure, they use on the job. They want people with five years experience in the tools in combination with the other tools in a unique way that only people who have been working for them for five years could have and such.

Sigh.

Let’s go back to Brooks’ Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

Oh, you mean when you hire people you have to show them what you are doing, how you are doing it, and all that. I mean, that takes time and effort to show new people all that stuff. Shouldn’t they just know it? I mean, shouldn’t they be able to read our minds from a distance while they drive to work on the first day? Huh?

Nope. Doesn’t work that way. People will have to learn. Also, people will learn and then do a fine job.

Do you want to shorten the time to learn? Simple, always be ready to teach.

But our employees are busy working. They are good at their jobs. They aren’t teachers and preparing to teach would be a waste of their time and we prefer wishful thinking to reality.

Grow up. Admit reality (reality always wins over fancy). We’re the managers, the persons “in charge.” We should prepare for the teaching so the learning happens faster and more efficiently. Come on, let’s do better.