Lazy People Don’t Work With Innovation – Or?
I am surprised, baffled and a little bit angry.
Last week, I wrote a post about signs of recovery within the innovation community. In the post, Job Opening: Global Director of Innovation, I mentioned an interesting job opportunity and clearly stated that if you would like to know more about this job, you should contact the headhunter in charge of the search. The post has a full name and even a phone number for the headhunter.
The post generated many comments on LinkedIn and I even got a couple of e-mails. Such interaction happens frequently with my blog posts.
However, these comments were different as they were requests like this “Send me more information on this position.” I kind of smiled at the first ones, but such requests continued to drop in.
I no longer thought this was funny as I began getting “reminders” as I did not bother to reply to these people. Someone even asked if I had the e-mail address for the headhunter.
What is happening with these people? Is this the attitude and approach people have when they are looking for jobs? Do they seriously believe they are candidates for a top job when they cannot even read a post and follow such simple instructions?
And yes, I do have the e-mail address to the headhunter, but I would really expect that the first move by any serious candidate would be to google the headhunter, which provides the requested information in the first link.
Some of these people even have experiences working with innovation in large companies. It makes me wonder if we have too many people lacking the self-drive and creativity to make things happen. That would explain why innovation is so difficult in many companies. There is definitely an issue with those who think they are qualified to work with innovation.
Sorry for the rant, but as I said I am surprised, baffled and a little bit angry. I had higher expectations in our innovation community.
Stefan, I think you have a right to be upset by these people, but, alas, I have found such behavior very common over the last few years. I blame it on multi-tasking. People read e-mail and blogs while they're on the phone or in meetings and thus the full meaning of what they're reading doesn't sink in and they miss major information, such as in your case, they missed the name of the headhunter and the contact info you had shared.
I have experienced this on a listserv I participate in here in Western Massachusetts, where a number of times I have shared information on an opportunity. I tell people that if they want more information they should contact the person whose info I have given, only to have them contact me and ask for more details. I don't have any more details. If I had them, I would have shared them in my post! That's what I feel like screaming at them each time I have to write back and again tell them to contact the person in my post.
The end result of all of this is that people who used to share information do so less and less because they don't want to get involved in a lot of back and forth with people who simply aren't reading carefully.
Have been in tech industry for quite a while and have really noticed the social and cultural change from enabled to expectant.
People seem to expect that you will provide for them in lieu of following the directions.
Boils down to being lazy and eventually inept.
The sad part is that many of these people have children who are or have learned this trait, and are even more demanding and expectant.
Just as your attempt to overlook the initial, many more followed – how do we break this cycle?
My inbox would full within hours after clearing, thus I stopped posting.