In recent months, there has been an increase in the number of people complaining about so-called “personality hires” – people who are given jobs based on their likability and charm, rather than their qualifications.
This first came to light when a TikToker went viral for speaking out about her own experiences as a personality hire. As of late more and more people are coming forward to complain about so-called “personality hires”
The issue of hiring people who are similar to oneself is something that has been going on for years in multiple companies. People tend to gravitate towards those who they have things in common with, but the problem with that is when qualified individuals are overlooked in favor of those who are simply likable. In the end the company suffers because there comes a time when you need work done and those who are likeable in many cases are not able to do work.
For example the TikToker admitted that she was hired due to her personality and charm but she didn’t have any experience. Instead of learning she bragged about not being qualified. Many other people made comments within her post that they too were unqualified personality hires and not interested in learning the position. Although their personality may help them land the job, it’s important to question who will be performing the actual work.
This is often when qualified staff members end up doing twice the amount of work they signed up for and organizations start to experience low morale which stems from staff being overworked and underpaid.
As you can see, personality is often the root cause of problems between employees and management. When management hires someone based solely on personality, it creates a toxic environment that eventually leads to disruption within the company.