Dropped powder to itch from the ceiling at the auction
Why should you hire someone with a sense of humor?
Well let me tell you a story.
Recently, I was interviewing a gentleman who had made some outlandish claims on his resume. His last job was at an auction house and he claimed that he was able to increase the company’s revenue by over 5000% in one year. This seemed a bit questionable, so I challenged him with this entry on his resume. I started by leaving him an “out” and asked if it was a typo, and if he meant 5%, 50%, or was it 500%. He acted horrified that he didn’t believe the 5000% profit on the revenue figure. He told me;
“Well, it was 5000% and may have been even higher!”
At this point he had to hear her secret. He said;
“It was simple, during each auction session, he would sneak into the rafters and sprinkle ‘chopping powder’ very lightly on the crowd below. The bidders couldn’t help it and kept picking at their hair, head and shoulders – and every time they did, the price increased because they were considered gestures to bid higher”.
Well, that’s a creative solution indeed, but was it real? And how did you quantify this? He explained the numbers and the magnifications and yes it was close to 5000%. In fact, an increase of 4960% when I did the math. I never found out if he actually did that or not, but he was the most interesting person I had ever interviewed and was hiring for a position in the R&D department, the title was Director of Innovation, in charge of the entire innovation team. leaders
He gave his statement with such a serious face that I still wonder if it was true. If he made it up, it’s hilarious and should be a cartoon in Barron’s or the Wall Street Journal. If it’s real: “Wow, that’s a pretty commercial story.”
It’s good to have fun people at the innovation center of your company; having interesting people who think outside the box is also a very good thing. Sometimes, as human resources professionals, we take ourselves too seriously. We don’t treat people like people. We don’t see the human side and how certain personality traits can be much more important than basic knowledge, college degrees, or years in an industry.
Unique people are valuable to an organization, but if you don’t agree, well, maybe you should hire a robot group and call it Robotic Resources instead of Human Resources. Oh, and while you’re at it, why not save your company some money and hire a robot to replace it too? Who needs a dull, boring human being in human resources? We already have enough. That’s probably why we have the problems in this sector that we have today! Think of this human.