[sholladay]

Obviously you should set standards for your company. I’m not saying just hire anyone and be done with it. But I am saying that hiring is a long-term project. And I am saying that many people could meet your standards if you meet them half-way by giving them all of the information they need, holding their hand a bit at the beginning, and giving them time to figure everything out.

I’ve worked at places that have the opposite philosophy - hire quickly and fire quickly. That works in terms of hiring people who already happen to be what you want them to be. It just leaves no room for anyone who could be, but isn’t yet, what you want them to be. It also leaves no room for anyone who is different from what you are looking for but who could still bring a lot to the table if you just take the time to figure out what that is, which I think describes a lot of people. You might have hired a mediocre programmer who would be a rockstar at documentation, for example. That kind of thing happens all the time, yet workplace culture and practices tend not to accommodate that. By all means have standards, but put in some effort to help your people reach them in their own way.