One of the reasons I started this blog is because I’m fascinated with extremes and parallels, with juxtaposition, irony, and surprise. That’s also why I named this blog Upside Down Bananas… to honor and explore surprising approaches to traditional ways of thinking.
But sometimes those surprises verge on just plain baffling.
Last night, my good friend called to report that after less than two weeks on the job (the start of her career as a graphic designer after college), she was invited into a conference room, given her first paycheck, and fired.
In most cases, the first two weeks would be a highly unusual time to fire an employee. You can imagine the atrocities she must have committed to deserve this swift send-off. Stealing? Failure to show up? Disruptive behavior?
Job seekers take note: there appears to be a new threshold of expectations for new employees.
Apparently if you are not passionate enough you should be fired before the ink dries on your health insurance forms.
This was the reason my friend’s employer offered for her dismissal. She was not passionate enough about their industry. In particular, they said she did not coo over industry-related magazines enough to justify additional investment or interest in her ambition, drive and commitment.
I have tried to think of any industry that accepts only superior insiders as qualified employees. I once worked for a trade publication focused on commercial real estate–great opportunity, but I definitely did not live, breathe, and die for the real estate industry, and neither did everybody else at the company. It goes without saying that this did not affect the success of the business or more interest in the work itself… even more obvious should be the fact that it actually helped the business.
Imagine that: unique individuals with diverse backgrounds collaborating to advance a company. Before yesterday, I would have considered this approach an inherent means of survival in the economy today. Instead, the company that fired my friend must view it as an extreme, even threatening, style of work.
Now besides being frustrated with my friend, I’m curious about this unexpected passion factor. Are there other companies that operate this way? And at what cost? How do they effectively hire anyone? At a certain point, isn’t it industry inbreeding to recycle and trust only the perspectives of insiders?
The best of friends must part,