Of course it is. Are you perfect, 100% without any flaws? How certain then are you that the employee you hire isn't going to start airing your dirty laundry at the earliest convenience?
> Are you perfect, 100% without any flaws? How certain then are you that the employee you hire isn't going to start airing your dirty laundry at the earliest convenience?
Not at all. If I hire someone, I'm making a commitment. If I made a mistake, its out of my pocket to make them whole.
Disclaimer: I have made mistakes hiring people, and have paid them for their troubles, even going so far as to be a reference for the other opportunities they had available and telling them it was our mistake.
Disclaimer: I have made mistakes hiring people, and have paid them for their troubles, even going so far as to be a reference for the other opportunities they had available and telling them it was our mistake.
If you treat employees with respect, you have little to fear.
If an employee makes a claim that puts you in a bad light, you can then honestly relate what happened. If there's nothing to be ashamed about, you'll come out of the experience fine.
Buffet has a fine definition of ethics:
The priority is that all of us continue to zealously guard Berkshire's
reputation. We can’t be perfect but we can try to be. As I’ve said in these
memos for more than 25 years: We can afford to lose money – even a lot of
money. But we can’t afford to lose reputation – even a shred of reputation."
We must continue to measure every act against not only what is legal but
also what we would be happy to have written about on the front page of a
national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent
reporter.
