How to spot a slacker before you hire him
Reader: I have just been promoted to manage a small group. One of the employees, "Cameron," is extremely unmotivated and lazy. He would gladly spend his entire shift eating or chatting with friends. If you tell him to do something, he will do it, but it usually takes forever and is slipshod work. He would have to assault someone or do something equally outrageous to be fired, as the company does not want to go through the effort of letting people go. My other employees complain bitterly and some have tried to shame him, but nothing has worked.
When I went through Cameron's employee file, I saw that he had aced the personality test as well as the situational questions in his interview. He claimed he was "highly motivated" and "would not hesitate to jump right in to help a co-worker who was struggling with work" and said "taking the initiative was a strength" of his. I have witnessed none of this from him.
I am going to need to hire more people in the coming months, and I can't afford to hire any more like Cameron. It appears my life preservers (the test and the situational questions) are of no use against someone who knows how to game the system.
A: The problem with situational questions in interviews is that any half-decent liar can spin "would" into gold. Focus not on what a candidate allegedly would do, but what he or she has done: "Can you give me an example of when you supported a struggling colleague?" "Describe an instance when you took initiative to solve a problem or improve a process. What was the result?"
References are your next resource. Unfortunately, many employers will only confirm a candidate's existence, while personal references may be more forthcoming, but less objective. Listen closely to the silence between words, and see whether the references, or even your own network, can point you to other people who know the candidate. If there's bad news, you probably won't have to scratch too hard to unearth it.
Probationary periods can let you road-test a new hire - but a con artist on a 90-day probation will just drop the charade on day 91.
In the end, professional scammers such as Cameron can charm their way through most defenses - but that doesn't mean you have to let them get comfortable at the rest of your team's expense. In Cameron's case, for example, you can assign his tasks yourself, request frequent status updates, set deadlines and bounce shoddy work back into his lap as many times as it takes for him to meet standards. In short, if you can't can Cam, squeeze him.
If that sounds like micromanagement, it's because it is - and it's highly effective at making workers want to leave their jobs. Yes, it means more work for you, but being a good manager means demonstrating that you're not going to punish good performers by making them pick up someone else's slack.
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• Miller has written for and edited tax publications for 16 years, most recently for the accounting firm KPMG's Washington National Tax office. Ask her about your work dramas and traumas by emailing wpmagazine@washpost.com. On Twitter: @KarlaAtWork.