Common Sense Can’t Be Taught
Sometimes employers are stuck with employees who simply do not exercise common sense or good judgment. At the end of the day, they are left wondering whether the employee, who appeared to be so strong and qualified on paper, simply won’t make the cut because they fail to exercise the judgment necessary for the job. It begs the question – can that common sense or judgment be taught – I don’t think so. Certainly, as we gain more experience our judgment improves (hopefully) but common sense or street smarts seems another matter.
I was in a restaurant the other day and happened to look in the restroom on the towel dispenser, a picture of which I have included. Unfortunately, that dispenser made me wonder about the quality of personnel at the restaurant. I don’t have an issue with any of the employees, but I wonder why such explicit directions were necessary to instruct an employee as to how to wash their hands. I believe this is simply part of the company’s risk management policy but it makes one wonder.
If you have an employee that needs this level of instruction on how to wash their hands, I’m not sure they’re actually going to be a very good employee. Similar to the hand washing example, there are certain situations that employees will deal with every day where common sense and good judgment are required. This ranges from dealing with superiors, to customers, to subordinates. Lack of the type of judgment that is necessary will be apparent and will not change. The employer is going to have to make a change, the question is not so much as if, just when.
