Pricey Mistakes or Learning Curves?

We all get things wrong every now and again. For some of us, it may be a common occurrence. Mankind has so often got things wrong that we’ve created a train of idioms and cliche phrases that encourage us to learn from all experiences. More recently, with the contagion of hashtags, we’ve been inclined to live with “hashtag no regrets” and a “hashtag yolo” outlook towards our wrong doings. It’s as though we no longer have the same level of accountability that we may have once had. And whilst I’m sure we can all appreciate this notion of ‘no strings attached’ and a carefree approach towards road bumps in life, the reality is that certain setbacks and poor decisions can greatly impact the road, and potential dead ends, that are to lie ahead. Let’s get real. There most definitely is a cost with getting it wrong.

Whether you’re an employer or an employee, wrong decisions have consequences. This isn’t a post to reverberate with superstitious ideas of being haunted by regretful moments. But it is to reinforce that poor decisions will come back to bite you in the toosh. Think back to some of your first experiences with the power of decision making… Maybe you were given the opportunity to choose what was for dinner, what to wear, who to shortlist to your birthday party. Some decisions are mundane and will generate relatively minimal ripple effects. However, other decisions are going to have a greater magnitude on your life and the consequent tidal wave that may stem from the ripple effect. Initially, one of the most integral decisions you are going to make is what to do when you finish school.

Some people have grown up their entire lives knowing what they want to be and what they are aiming for. They get there and then… it’s not always happily ever after. The office is smaller than they day dreamed of, the vending machine does indeed operate off your own money, an alarm clock does have to be set, and what on earth is this tax business?! It’s easy to see why many believe ‘Workplace Happiness’ is not a fairy tale but a vocational myth. The mistake in casting this wand of judgement was actually an earlier mistake. It was the mistake of not being prepared, the mistake of tunnel vision, the mistake of not seeking guidance or support on what will be one of the biggest decisions you will make. There’s not always going to be a learning receipt issued as a consequence of the cost of getting it wrong.

To revisit the prelude of this post, we’re all going to get it wrong at some stage in our lives; personally and professionally. But we live in a time where there’s really no excuse for this. Services on offer, such as Swivel and Kinetic Recruitment, are to assist and minimise disruptive collateral. In ‘Psychological Assessment in the Workplace: A Manager’s Guide’, authors’ Mark Cook and Barry Cripps talk about the cost of getting it wrong. They critique this from an employer’s perspective, examining productivity - or loss thereof - and the impact that hiring the wrong person can have on the workplace environment. Cook and Cripps sympathise with employers by highlighting the effort potential employees go through in order to ‘impress’ in the interview process, “interviewees generally want the job, so they will try hard to manage the impression they create”. It exposes the idea that a lot of false perceptions are born during the interview. These false perceptions can be held by both the would be employee and the potential employer.

Rewind. Now pause. You’re looking for work, what to do next. You’re about to start scrolling online and flicking out CVs; this isn’t something you should just be doing willy nilly. A haphazard approach towards what will become your 9-5 is certainly not wise. Getting into the wrong workplace is as personally and emotionally detrimental to your wellbeing as being in the wrong relationship - platonic or otherwise. There are numerous publications that focus on elimination by trial of would be careers. Forbe’s article, ‘3 telltale signs you’re on the wrong career path’, proposes a ‘career path hypothesis’ in which it treats each career as an inquiry towards determining what your preferred or idealistic career path could be; however, your dream job is not just going to land on your lap! Given the range of services, trials and experiences out there in today’s market, there are preferable alternatives to this haphazardness. Time is a commodity. Wasting it is a costly, ineffective endeavour indeed. Charles Darwin went as far as to say that “a man who dares waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life”. So while the cost of getting it wrong may to an employer be productivity, to an employee - emotionally dissatisfying, to both parties, it is time that cannot be recovered. And that, we all know, is a costly and irreplaceable loss indeed.