From: Patty McCord
One day I was talking with one of our best engineers. Before the layoffs, he’d managed three engineers, but now he was a one-man department working very long hours.
I told John I hoped to hire some help for him soon. His response surprised me. “There’s no rush—I’m happier now,” he said. It turned out that the engineers we’d laid off weren’t spectacular—they were merely adequate.
John realized that he’d spent too much time riding herd on them and fixing their mistakes. “I’ve learned that I’d rather work by myself than with subpar performers,” he said.
The best thing you can do for employees is hire only “A” players to work alongside them. Excellent colleagues trump everything else.
