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Home > The Mike Hosking Breakfast > Mike's Minute: Why don't we pick the best person for the job anymore?


	Podcast:		The Mike Hosking Breakfast
	Episode:		Mike's Minute: Why don't we pick the best person for the job anymore?
	Category:		News & Politics
	Duration:		00:01:50
	Publish Date:		2022-03-31 20:36:41
	Description:		I was thinking as Phil Goff got tipped about his new job in London, about how badly wrong we appear to have gone the job market. We all seem to agree that productivity is not what it should be and we have never really been as smart at working as we could be. And although productivity is a fairly broad based and tricky old thing to detail, far less address, we are making some fairly fundamental errors that can't be helping us. The simple premise of the best person for the job seems to have gone by the wayside. The best person for the job solves a lot of issues, including simply getting stuff done. Not having the best person for the job is a compromise and that leads to mistakes and lack of productivity. The Government and its thousands of workers aren't, it seems, in any hurry to get back to the office. Yet it is that army of people that could reinvigorate our city centres. The CBDs are bleeding and have been for two years and counting. We have an answer but aren't using it, why not? But back to Goff. He's okay. He'll make a reasonable figure for us in London, but is he the best person for the job? Of course not. He's a lifer with the Labour Party owed a favour. Is that anyway to appointment someone to anything? Far less a role of real importance? We are obsessed, it seems, with gender as well. Whether it be a pay gap, a board seat, an executive position, or just a numerical make up in the office. Got to have the right number of women, why? Are they the best people for the jobs? Yes, quite often they are. Why wouldn’t they be? But the moment you inject any artificiality into any equation you sully the recipe. Biden's Supreme Court pick had to be an African-American woman. Is she the best person for the job? Who would know because anyone who wasn’t African-American or a woman wasn’t even thought about. The things that have led to women and minorities being poorly represented or paid are many and varied. But in trying to address them, we go about it at the cost of productivity, efficiency, and success. People get jobs for the wrong reasons. Getting the best person for the job works, it's a good idea. We've taken that idea, shelved it, and filled it with excuses. So, Goff is off to London and productivity remains an issue, and we wonder why. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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