Is it a Disease?

Image: Flickr/Frank De Kleine Coloring (Creative Commons)

"Is it a disease?", she chatted on gTalk and I could imagine the look of disgust on her face. That wasn't the face I remembered, she had been my model once when I knew about cameras and did some shoots alongside my day jobs. And that was a pretty face and a good professional over that. "Call me now", I gTalked back. "At work, will call in evening", she typed back. "No, call me now", work wasn't more important.

Irene (name changed to protect identity) didn't mince her words, she had a question for me. "How come, till yesterday I was perfect for the job and suddenly my work has to be reallocated, delegated, just because the strip showed a red line?" "Does it make sense Prashant? Is pregnancy a disease?".  She had even been to two job interviews, one of which made an offer and then pulled back when she told them the good news. 

Irene didn't work for me and she spoke to me because she felt I had interest in Organization practices. But her agony was very real, very there and her question is one that stares Indian Entrepreneurs in their faces. What's so scary about a Woman employee turning pregnant that Entrepreneurs and Organizations go bonkers. Isn't it the simplest of human resource realities that an enterprise needs to provision for? How impossible is it to cover for 3 month leave followed by a few months of WorkFlex? 

While somewhere else in the World a pregnant Merrisa takes charge as CEO of global Internet giant Yahoo, closer home Entrepreneurs are playing "I need no pregnant" with the most potent workforce around and calling their ventures sick in the process. 

I offered Irene a job with WorkFlex option and assured of connecting her to more good ventures but I continue to think........ Are we building the Awesome Ventures that we had set out to build as Entrepreneurs?

Think before you look!

The guy seemed to have it all, pleasing personality, a good talker, had decent credentials, could answer all my questions and was asking for a reasonable raise. The problem was - I hadn’t thought through what I should be looking for.

Think about it, most job descriptions are poor copy paste jobs, done only when an agency asks for them! And what do they really describe? Most sound either like mundane lists of "to dos" or like glossed over hard sells that a candidate should be falling for! Oh yes and they do specify in some detail the skills required of the person - communication, selling, computers, blah, blah...

What they totally miss out is what you are really looking for -

A person who fits into your company culture

A person who you can talk to, who you can work with

A person who will not make excuses for why a job can't be done, but who will try and figure out ways to do it instead!

A person who may not have done the job before but will try like hell to make sure he gets it!

In short, a person who will share your passion to create / grow..

So now, let's go back to the drawing board, let's create new job descriptions with something that goes like this:

1. What's the type of person I am looking for?

2. What are things about work that I want him to be on top of?

3. How will he contribute to the company - what specific outcomes am I hoping for him to achieve?

4. What would he typically be currently doing and where?

5. What would be his typical hobbies/ interests?

6.  What would be the best way to get to this dream person?

Now start looking! You will be surprised at the results!

PS: I don’t mean “He” in a gender biased way!