Stop Pigeonholing Workers — Learn More
Written by Jerry Roberts. Follow me on Twitter.
Communication, Innovation, Leadership

How many managers hire someone for a specific set of tasks and then forget that they hired a whole human being who is full of undocumented skills and capabilities?
Answer: Too many.
And we lose a big advantage as a result.
Why do we pigeonhole people?
When we hire people we conduct the interview(s) and scan the resumé for red flags, but we probably don’t go very much in depth with them, learning what else they can do. I think this is fumbling the ball right from the start.
George was hired by a hotel, going on the payroll as manager in their call center. He’d worked two previous jobs in that role and that’s all anybody knew about him. The hotel general manager quickly glanced at George’s resumé, while the HR manager didn’t look past the last two jobs at other call centers.
This is common practice. The primary drive is often to just fill the round hole with the round peg, and move on to the next one.
George was the call center guy. No other information was required.
Chef quits in fiery protest — what will we do?
A couple of months later the GM and the executive chef (doubling as the food and beverage manager), got into a heated spat and it resulted in the chef bolting from the kitchen and resigning on the spot.
There were banquets, weddings, and other special events to plan and cook for, and the hotel was in a tough spot. They tried to bring a replacement chef in, as well as an interim manager, but neither lasted more than a couple of weeks. The GM was in a panic, the kitchen staff was being asked to work many extra hours and was up in arms, and it was a major mess that was getting worse by the day.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, the call center…
George had picked up on some of the conversation but didn’t know the extent of the problem, and the GM had only mentioned the issue in a manager’s meeting as “being under control.” George certainly had not been told to pull the reigns in on any marketing programs that included booking large groups.
When he finally got an accurate picture from another chef, he went to the GM and offered to help. The manager looked at him and said, “That’s very nice, but I need an executive chef and a food and beverage manager in the kitchen. If you know of anyone who fits that bill, send them my way.”
George cleared his throat and replied, “Well, I guessed that nobody had read my resumé, and now you’ve confirmed it.”
“What are you talking about?” asked the GM.
“Pull my personnel file,” George said.
The GM looked at him with a long, curious expression, “I suppose I’m going to find out that you were both of those in another life?”
When he was handed the file and read the resumé, the GM began to shake his head at what he saw. Buried under the call center jobs was a paragraph that listed George’s ownership of a boutique catering service that specialized in top drawer events and dinner parties, and that he was a highly trained chef. The GMs eyes widened.
Hidden talents may be just what we need
Over the course of the next few minutes George explained to his boss that he had owned the company for five years and did well, but that the pressures of trying to satisfy an incredibly demanding clientele had led him to close down. His real love was cooking extravagant meals, not dealing with difficult clients and creative, but volatile cook staff.
George then started running call centers, making far less money but avoiding the 70-hour weeks and stress of the catering business. He still organized three or four events each year, but only for significant profit and with clients he found easy to work with.
The GM didn’t know what to say. George finally just stated, “I think I can help fix the problem and give you time to find the right replacements.”
A meeting of the kitchen leaders was called and George took over the dual role that had been left vacant by the departed chef. He stayed there for less than two months, and was finally returned to the call center when new people were hired. His stay in the kitchen was nothing less than a complete success.
The cost of not knowing
The turmoil in the hotel’s kitchen had carried a serious price in lost morale, as well a couple of unhappy banquet clients, plus increased staffing charges to meet the emergency. George figured the gross damage was above $70,000 and maybe even into six figures.
If either the GM or the HR manager had read his entire resumé and had made a few mental notes, could at least a significant chunk of that have been avoided?
So, what do we do now?
George’s case isn’t completely unique. I can tell you with total certainty that there are people on your payroll who have specific skills in areas that could be critical for your operation, should a difficult situation arise. Knowing this information could save you time and money. Okay, what should you do?
- Pull the resumés and applications for everyone in your organization and go over them carefully, establishing categories of skills represented. Maybe you’ll find someone who has organized special events, led CPR classes, was the captain of her college debate squad, and the list goes on.
- Create a form for workers to list their individual qualities, as the resumés and applications won’t list all of them.
- Build a database that will give you instant access to your talent rich workers, using standard “find” or “search.” If my customer service team comes up depleted, how nice it would be if I could enter “customer service” in my database and find a handful of people who have done that work?
The purpose of this site is to offer street smart tools that will make work and life easier, and to give you an advantage over competitors. Anytime you can learn more about your team it’s a bonus, but this strategy could be much more valuable, helping you to solve a problem at the most critical moment.
Is there something you can add to this?

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