Assuming I decide to pass him, he’ll be working his sales territory by phone 11 weeks out of 12. That 12th week he’ll meeting customers in person in site visits, attempts to drum up new business in person that could not be done on the phone, and so forth. So 91.67% of the time, driving will be irrelevant, but that last 8.33 percent it will be quite important.
That’s if he passes the training class, of course. There’s both an objective and subjective element to that. Objectively, among other things, he has to demonstrate the ability to use Excel–not merely interpreting spreadsheets, but creating and manipulating them. Tomorrow they get tested on that. If a trainee screws up that test, they’re out. If I fail him for subjective reasons, my boss will expect me to justify it.
1. As a function of the speed limit, how fast do you typically drive?
My speed and the speed limit are non-corralated. I don’t speed on surface streets, limited access roads I drive as fast as conditions allow.
2. If you generally keep at or below the speed limit, do you do so because you want to save on gas, because you want to drive defensively, because you’re afraid of getting ticketed, or some other reason?
I drive as fast as I can and remain in control of the situation. Control always comes before speed.
3. When turning right on red, do you come to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection?
Yes, always, even in Boston.
3. Should I bitch-slap this trainee, and if so, how? (If he’s hired, his job will be B2B selling.)
He’s got an attitude problem, and he can’t seem to seperate work behavior from personal behavior. If you feel the need to hire him despite this, you should warn his supervisor about this tendency.
I would think “when he drove to the site visit he not only broke the law by speeding, he encouraged other people to do the same. This made me seriously question his ethics and the exposure we would have hiring someone who not only disregards the law himself, but encourages others to do so” would be very significant justification in an era where companies are regularly getting sued and losing money due to ethics.
(Almost everyone speeds - encouraging other people to speed is where he stepped over the line into questionable ethics.)
As a function of the speed limit, how fast do you typically drive?
Assuming you mean highway driving, and traffic and weather conditions permitting, between 70 and 80 MPH depending on what my wheels are or what the load is. In a U-Haul rental truck I’ll probably be doing 60 at most; in my 4-cylinder Subaru Forester I’ll drive close to 70, riding solo on my Kawasaki VN750 motorcycle around 75, and in my Acura TL sports sedan around 80. I’m not “the fastest guy on the road”, but it’s only because I’m getting passed by him and maybe his racing buddy (it’s not often a woman).
** If you generally keep at or below the speed limit, do you do so because you want to save on gas, because you want to drive defensively, because you’re afraid of getting ticketed, or some other reason?**
N/A, but if I’m driving at the speed limit for reasons other than road, weather or traffic conditions, that reason is probably due to fear of getting ticketed – like because I know it’s a speed trap or can see the officer on the horizon.
When turning right on red, do you come to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection?
Absolutely. Safety first. In fact being from NYC I often forget I can turn right on a red light outside the city, and get honked at from behind for sitting there.
Should I bitch-slap this trainee, and if so, how?
Clearly he’s clueless in more ways than one. A clear no-hire. I don’t think the negatives you’ve laid out are “subjective”, especially if he’s going to be working with or for you: the killer combo of confident, aggressive and factually and analytically wrong.
1. As a function of the speed limit, how fast do you typically drive?
0-5 mph over on expressways, 5 mph over on city streets. My main rationale is that I’m just keeping up with almost every other vehicle (I know that doesn’t make it right). In expressway construction zones I adhere strictly to the limit, mostly because the police watch those areas closely.
3. When turning right on red, do you come to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection?
Almost always. I can count all my rolling stops in any circumstances on both hands.
4. Should I bitch-slap this trainee, and if so, how?
Yes. I don’t know.
5-10 over on most surface roads; at the limit or under on residential streets and construction zones; with the flow of traffic on interstates, usually in the second lane from the left.
Always. It’s the law, and every intersection around here has traffic cameras. Pisses off some people behind me, but I don’t let that bother me.
Yes, with a wet noodle. Do not hire him, for your sanity and the sake of the business.
He clearly does not have the people skills and self-preservation instincts to do well in business. How do you expect him to sell your product/services well if he can’t sell himself well? Everyone knows that you hide your flaming asshole tendencies until AFTER you’re hired, even if it kills you. It’s just plain dumb to antagonize or criticize someone whom you just met and who has the power to make or break your job prospects at this company. Think of yourself as a potential customer that he just pissed off.
1: On highways? Ten to fifteen over. Sometimes twenty to thirty. And usually, I am still driving at the speed of traffic on my daily commute. On normal roads? Limit to ten over, depending on how things are. Never more than ten over.
2: When I am at or below the speed limit, I am either (by priority) A: in a residential neighborhood, B: in an unfamiliar city or state, C: in a high-priority cop zone. Safety of others, security of navigation, and then, last, what the authorities think of the matter, is my opinion of things.
3: Fuck yes. I drive in some of the worst traffic and on some of the worst roads imaginable. Brooklyn. Bronx. Manhattan. And points north during floods and ice storms, during drunktime of Labor Day and so on. There is no excuse for not stopping properly. The worse things are, the bigger a prior indication you should give, and the earlier you should slow down.
3: Insist he take one of those remedial traffic court lessons to lower your insurance liability.
As a function of the speed limit, how fast do you typically drive?
I typically go about 10 miles above the speed limit, but I would go the speed limit, or whatever speed was needed, if people were following me.
If you generally keep at or below the speed limit, do you do so because you want to save on gas, because you want to drive defensively, because you’re afraid of getting ticketed, or some other reason?
When I keep to the speed limit it’s either because it’s a reasonable limit for the particular road, or I don’t have anywhere to be and am just enjoying the drive, or I’m worried about cops.
When turning right on red, do you come to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection?
Usually. But I was stopped by a cop once for turning on yellow so I now know that at least where I live, it’s illegal not to stop before turning on red.
Should I bitch-slap this trainee, and if so, how? (If he’s hired, his job will be B2B selling.)
Yep! Besides the fact that it’s illegal to not stop before turning on red in some areas, there’s the more important issue of that you had people following you, which overrides other driving considerations.
I have the best anti-speeding ticket device available: cruise control. I set it at the posted speed limit and then just admire the cars that sail past me doing anywhere from 10-30 mph over the limit. I especially like the ones who get behind me in the right line and honk/flash their headlights at me to get out of their way.
Yes to all of the above. The other reason: speeding kills, and if I control my speed limit, then all I have to do is watch out for the assholes on the road who think the speed limit laws don’t apply to them.
Absolutely. It’s just like coming up to a stop sign.
Teensy speed trap towns = exact. (Hate those.)
Cities or places with busy intersections = slow. Here, pedestrians and bicycles love appearing out of the blue, with no crosswalk/right of way, for no discernible reason except for a deep-down desire to die.
Highways, suburb roads = up to 10 over, but as of late I’ve been sticking to the speed limit.
Mostly, I don’t want to kill someone or get ticketed.
I don’t drive at 10 over like I used to, because I’ve found that passing other cars, cursing at the old lady doing 5 below in the left lane, etc., simply isn’t worth it. BUT – here, the flow of traffic on the interstates generally matches the speed limit – every other city I’ve been to, the flow of traffic is 15+ over, and I’m sure I’d drive differently there.
YES. If no other reason than the fact that bikes are legal on sidewalks and roads both, and you’re not gonna see if a bike is gonna barrel across the crosswalk/stop sign. Full visibility is rare.
(I fully support bikes, BTW. That’s why I am so careful to not to kill them.)
At the very least, don’t hire him. This isn’t going to be the first time he disregards your instructions, screws up because of it, and then tries to pin the blame on you.
On the highway/interstate, usually 5 to 10 mph above the speed limit where conditions permit. In town (where the speed limit is between 25 and 45), as close to the speed limit is possible, though I may briefly go 5-10 mph over if the road is clear or other traffic is going at least that fast.
(a) To avoid getting a speeding ticket (I haven’t yet, in all my years of driving). )b) To avoid accidents (or make them less severe if one should occur. (c) Being-a-good-citizen types of reasons. I’ve seen people who speed egregiously or dangerously or inconveniently to other drivers, and I think, I don’t want to be that guy.
Come to a complete stop, look carefully, and make sure it’s safe to proceed.
Business-to-business. If you work for, say, UPS, and have a sales territory of business owners to support, you’re engaging in B2B sales. Likewise selling radio advertising, or any other commodity whose customer is business owners, not consumers.
“Say, for your next interview, I would recommend first that you be on time, next that you try to avoid being critical or hostile toward the person whose job it is to decide if YOU get the job. I’d also recommend that you work on your anger management skills, because being short tempered and argumentative tends to make people wonder if they really want to work with you. Well, that’s it. Goodbye, and good luck on your job search.”
Second chances are for making up for mistakes in judgment or execution, to allow for basically valuable raw material to be further polished.
What you described did include some amount of “mere immaturity”. Assuming this young man was at most in his early 20s, fresh out of school, I would take it into consideration that he simply needed to get beaten down by the real world to gain the proper perspective… If his role were something analytical or technical in nature, and he showed analytical or technical brilliance.
But you were talking about a role in sales, B2B in fact. You can’t train him up in a back room or restricted environment until he’s ready to work with a wider group of people. He’s going to be the face of the firm, putting the firm’s name and reputation on the line every time he talks to a client. He exhibited just too many of what I consider to be huge red flags – not just one, but several – and there is plenty of better raw material out there than him.
Yes, sure, if you had to hire him I sure hope there would be a way to mold him into shape over time. But why should you? Why should you, your co-workers or the firm as a whole have to pay the extra overhead in time, money and aggravation when there are plenty of other fish in the sea, also fresh out of school and looking for a job, as skilled or better than him and more personable to boot?
No, seriously, I definitely believe in second chances (I’ve been given a few myself), but you have to believe that there’s something there worth salvaging or that the person will make the best of the opportunity if given. If the guy was really that much of a dick over the course of a day, making that many bad decisions, it’s really questionable as to whether or not you’d be able to turn him around.
(If he’s hired, his job will be B2B selling.)
