The Right Fit
from wikimedia - helmut schaar
In a large company with many departments, the management team promoted a woman to lead their worst-performing research office. In her first month, the woman reviewed her staff assignments. She moved some people into technical positions, others into clerical work, and made a few of her staff into supervisory specialists. Then, for her most controversial move, she demoted her second in command. She didn't lower his salary but she restored him to a research position.
Many of her staff and some of her peers wondered if she didn't want competition from a senior researcher.
Two months later, her oldest section chief retired, which opened up the technical lead job. Her company told her she could fill it with an in-house hire or an outside researcher. During the next month, she interviewed a dozen candidates. Eventually, she decided to hire the man she'd demoted. Her supervisor objected.
"You didn’t like that man!" the boss said after calling her into the central office. “Are you admitting to a mistake?”
"This is a different job,” she explained. She stared at other woman for a moment and realized her supervisor, wasn’t much older than she was. Her hair was still dark.
The boss had started out as principal investigator instead of getting promoted to the position; and then she had advanced quickly. She was known for her insight into science and to the people conducting it, so it was alarming to have a disagreement with her.
“It’s a job he excels at,” she continued.
“It looks bad.”
“Well, it isn’t. When I demoted him, I said he was a good worker but not the right fit for the job." She put her hands on her hips as she gazed around the office. There was a lot of wood furniture. It didn't look like the labs.
"I thought you were being polite." The older woman leaned back in her chair.
"Isn't he actually an great worker?" She posed a question to which they both knew the answer.
"Interesting." Her supervisor nodded. "No one thought you realized that he was."
"Doesn’t this move put him in the right job now?"
"Yes.” The chief swiveled in her chair. She stared at something beyond her office window.
After a moment, the younger researcher decided the discussion was done. She turned to go.
Behind her back she heard her supervisor whisper,
"Maybe so are you."
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