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Overlooked, Toxic Qualities to Watch out for When Hiring

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Overlooked, Toxic Qualities to Watch out for When Hiring

You have an opening and need to hire someone. Of course, you want a candidate who has the skills and experience to help your company move forward. But you should be careful not to limit your criteria to those hard skills that are usually easier to define. Instead, widen your requirements to ensure that whomever you hire fits into the company’s culture.

Assuming you have a workplace in which your employees work well together toward a common goal, you’ll want to avoid a new hire who will cast a toxic cloud over it. You probably already know the type: difficult, draining and self-centered individuals, who have little appreciation for working on a team and who, at their worst, can alienate your team.

Toxic people come in several identifiable forms

In many cases, you will spot a toxic candidate during the interview. Watch out for any of these types:

  • Non-stop narcissists: This type will keep interrupting you to talk about themselves—or simply to hear themselves talk. They won’t ask you a question because they don’t want to shut up long enough to listen to your response.
  • Drama magnets: These toxic people look for problems, and then want your sympathy when they find them. They might tip their hand at the interview and tell you about the terrible boss at their last job, hoping you will empathize. Be careful. These drama seekers could find you if you hire them.
  • Liars: Liars, fibbers, exaggerators. No matter what you call them, you don’t want them in your work environment. Their dishonesty will drain their co-workers, and no one will trust anything they say.
  • Steamrollers: These toxic people are always right, and they crush everything in their path without regard to anyone else’s opinions or feelings. They are typically arrogant, and their views are not up for debate. If you come across one of these during an interview, move on to the next candidate!
  • Emotional vampires: These people will drain the life out of you emotionally. They spread negativity and sadness wherever they go and tend to bring others down with them. If you want to keep employee morale at a high level, don’t add one of these into the mix.

 Just say “no”

Think about your workplace as it is now. Now, look into the future and imagine what it might be like with the addition of just one toxic worker. Can you see:

  • Someone always having to fix their problems?
  • Plenty of drama every week?
  • Them gossiping and spreading rumors?
  • Other workers trying to avoid them?
  • Lower morale throughout your workplace?

You and your workers deserve to have an upbeat environment that results in high productivity, happy workers, and low turnover. Avoiding toxic people will go a long way toward achieving that.

Work goes better when you have the right people

Let us help you find them. Contact Pro Resources for the light industrial or technical/professional help you need. We’ve been in business for over 30 years, and will use our expertise to help you find your next top-notch worker.

 

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