Opinion: Should you be hiring more conniving backstabbers?
June 5, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Hiring, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
It’s a tough world, and it’s getting tougher. So should HR respond by looking for people who don’t mind playing dirty once in a while?
Which came first, civility or success? That’s one question Rosabeth Kanter sought to answer in her business book “Confidence.”
Kanter is a Harvard professor and business consultant who noticed in her studies of successful companies that people who worked with or for those companies always seemed to talk about how “nice” the managers and employees were.
So, she wondered: (a) Are the people nice because the companies
are making lots of money? Or (b) are the companies making a lot of
money because the people are nice?
Kanter’s conclusion: It’s (b). Or, if you prefer, nice guys (and gals) finish first.
Going up?
And her advice to HR managers: Yes, of course you want to hire
skilled, talented, knowledgeable people. But all those things being
equal, you want to hire the person who knows how to treat others.
The organization that does so will have a better chance of achieving long-term success, in any economy.
That doesn’t mean you have to be on the lookout for bubbly back-slappers to fill your openings. You know that a lot of fine people you come across are quiet, unassuming types. So it isn’t a strict question of
personality or putting on a good face.
Instead, Kanter insists, the decency factor is one of those things that’s hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.
Kanter’s research comes close to confirming the old saw about asking yourself, “Would I want to spend three hours in a stuck elevator with this person?” when appraising a candidate.
More than that, though, it suggests you ask yourself: “Would this person hold the elevator for me if he or she was in a hurry?”
Tags: Confidence, Rosabeth Kanter
June 8th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
You can’t possibly know if someone is a backstabber or not during an interview but you can make your work place more enjoyable if you put into place employee friendly policies and an open door policy to talk to management. That doesnt mean a suggestion box outside the supervisor’s door that get checked whenever and then the supervisor sees you 3 weeks later and says nice suggestion Ill look into that. That means yeah ummm NO!
If I go to a business and see disgruntled employees and jerk managers I don’t return because I don’t support that sort of culture in the workplace. (Therefore I can’t go to many places these days) So really I don’t think this “study” of successful companies was really a tough question to answer and come up with a conclusion. My answer immediately was the conclusion. It’s not a science, it’s common sense.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
As I was waiting for the man to arrive who interviewed me for my current job, his assistant told me all about her horrible ex-husband and even cried to me, a total stranger. After one week on the job, the same woman told me to trust NO ONE but her. She was constantly giving me advice, and then yelled at me when I didn’t follow her instructions. And right before she quit, she started telling other employees not to trust me! We are VERY happy she quit and moved to Ohio! I found out later everything she had been saying behind my back.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I had a bad feeling about someone I interviewed so I called a vendor we both used in the past.
“Off the record” I was told this candidate was bossy, arrogant and generally rude. Our company has a reputation for being a great place to work and work with. I wasn’t going to risk that for a borderline candidate.
A competitor that I’m friendly with hired her and confirmed all I was told. I’m glad I passed on her.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Its really difficult to establish if a person is a backstabber or not. Backstabbing really happens in every company these days.Even if you phone references you dont know if the boss who says negative things was influenced by a backstabber in the workplace, and that negative reference might actually be totally unjustified!
Cant employers install secret cameras or otherwise tape recorders that nobody knows about? This is the only way an employer will catch the backstabber culprit redhanded!
Oh, and by the way people say they love companies, usually not because they pay well, but because they love the management there.A manager who does not appreciate staffs hard work, and on top of that still sides with backstabbers will get alot of criticism. Very bad for the company image, as such injustice and anger is carried over to peoples personal life, and the company can gain a bad reputation .Everybody speaks to their loved ones about work, and they again speak to other people and so it goes.
I have interviewed a person who came out out straight and told me what happened at the previous job , because they had to . They had to defend the injustices and wrong impression on them that were caused by backstabbers. This is not always to be taken as an excuse at for performance gone wrong! Remember also some unscrupulous,spitefull employers who didnt like their employees for whatever reason, often phone the previous employers and just add fuel to the fire by saying similar negative things -although they cant back it with a number of examples! I know of stories where the boss who disliked an employee, backstabbed the employee to create scenarios to talk about.
This was confirmed by talking to other colleagues who knew the tactics this boss employs in general, and knew the staff member.
One should see every situation as individual,and not compare them to ones own experiences ,or that of other people.Also ask yourself is the person you are hiring, always makeing sure that they are leaving notes in the appointment book, to discredit another employee?Is there a valid reason for it ,or is it unjustified?/Pointless? How is the message written with exclaimation marks! In capitals ?Why ? This was a first hint in detection, and many other things followed in detection. However its very difficult and takes time to catch culprits,especially if you are the employer, and not another employee.
A manager who has worked in a subordinate position for years themselves, and who had to put up with a lot of hard work, injustice, backstabbers and apalling bosses is the best manager that the world can ever have. No paper or qualification can make up for this life experience. These are the managers who have huge success, who are very popular with staff because they have gone through suffering and developed sensitivity and introspection, and can thus also detect the backstabbers a mile away too, and keep them at bay .
Dont ever underestimate the sucess of a company that does not have backstabbers , or deals with them accordingly.People who work in peace and harmony can be super productive . Managers should be very carefull in identifying the correct person as a backstabber , and not makeing any assumptions! It can be difficult for somebody whos not involved to identify the culprits. Especially because backstabbes operate in a very suttle,unobvious way.
Tactics of backstabbers include deliberatly misholding information that a person needs, always offering to help when really they are drowing in work themselves, with the intention of sussing out how the person works, or with the intension of making mistakes for the other person.
Movitations of backstabbers are normally to reach the top and discredit others, jealously about something in the professional enviroment or about the other person having something in life they dont. Afraid that person might steal their position in the company, or afraid they will compete with them on some other level.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Just another note. Its very rare that people backstab at work because they find that the other person did them a persal injustice. Mostly it is because they are insecure, and find the need to
put other people down , in order to look better than them. Afraid of competition now, or in future.
Thus employees should never disclose personal information such as wanting to leave a company to another employee. Very dangerous is also diclose any information about personal life,past or present. Keep all your mistakes to yourself and trust nobody. Obviously ask if you dont know something,but rather ask the boss,not a colleague.Sounds paranoid,but everyone with the life experience will know this the only way to ward of people like that.
Backstabbers keep a record of mistakes and make sure the boss finds out, not in an upfront way,but in a sneaky way. Always sneaky and cunning!They will also talk to another colleagues about mistakes another colleague made, that they have actually created for another person , to manipulate the other colleague that the person is apparently not doing their job properly.
Please note that people who defend themselves against backstabbers,for example in a meeting might initially be seen as backstabbers, when in reality , they are defending the unfair deeds that were done against them to discredit them. Please make sure you can tell the diffrence. The backstabber may however also adres his created manipulations in a meeting , so you just have to find a way to really probe and tell the diffrence.The diffrence between defending injustice and the diffrence between a backstabber creating mistakes for people, and adressing them in a meeting.
Usually its a mixture of real and deliberatly created mistakes . The backstabber records everything he can use against another colleague , and sees to it that he preys on it when the time is suitable.