That Little Bit Of Bad That Taints Perception

You are an employer looking for the perfect employee. You find him in the current CV you are paging through. He is perfect! The right skills, the right job experience. You can't wait to talk to him! You grab the phone, and schedule an appointment. When you meet him you are indeed impressed at his calm demeanour and impressive knowledge, and want to make him an immediate job offer. The only proviso being he is to join the team he will work with at their end of year function, a fancy dress. He arrives dressed as James Dean, and he proceeds to entertain everyone with his flamboyance. Everyone likes him. He then lights up an enormous smelly cigar, and the pungent smoke rising causes your hopes for him to flee. You abhor smoke, and this view you see of your new potential employee clashes with your values. You don't hire him.

You will never know if this was the right choice you made. Perhaps he might have been the future CEO? You just remember the cigar. You do not see that he might have been able to adapt to blend in to any situation that arose. That he believes in having fun out of the office, but is an exemplary employee. Maybe he would have been the answer to drag your company out of where it is languishing and provide needed direction?

How much "bad" is too much If someone does great work 95% of the time, and slips 5% of the time, is this too much? If someone makes one really big mistake in life, is this what will be remembered, in spite of all the positive?

Consider that we all make mistakes. As Jesus said, when faced with a woman accused of adultery who was about to be stoned, John 8:7 (KJV): "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."