GoKawiilEntrepreneur op-ed: Firm hired repeatedly to avoid confronting problem employee
A business consultant recounts advising a company that kept adding staff and creating new roles to offset the disruption caused by one employee whose poor behavior drove colleagues away, rather than directly addressing her conduct. Despite multiple rounds of hiring, the underlying tension never eased, prompting leadership to eventually question why headcount growth wasn't solving the problem. The consultant concludes the company's issue was accountability, not staffing levels.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The anecdote suggests that hiring can become a way for leaders to avoid difficult personnel conversations, masking rather than solving operational dysfunction. It implies that companies should diagnose whether a problem stems from unclear roles, broken processes, or unresolved performance issues before adding headcount, since hiring into unresolved chaos can compound it.
- A company repeatedly hired new staff to offset disruption from one problematic employee instead of addressing her behavior.
- The consultant argues the real issue was accountability, not insufficient staffing.
- The piece recommends tying hiring decisions to measurable demand metrics rather than using hiring as a quick fix for internal conflict.
Source: entrepreneur.com — Chrissy Myers, 2026-10-19
Published there as: “I Watched a Company Keep Hiring to Avoid One Difficult Conversation. Here’s How to Know When You Actually Need More People.”
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