Hiring Friends as Staff?

Discussion in 'Member and Staff Management' started by Kaiser, May 1, 2011.

  1. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    One mistake I see new forum owners making is hiring people just because they are his/her friends. And thats another reason for their forums doing so poor.

    Do you hire your friends as staff on your site just because of your friendship with them?
     
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  2. Tah Zonemaster

    Tah Zonemaster Regular Member

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    Well, I'm only inviting friends in the team of my forum in the beginning, when the site is not public yet. But after that, nope, then I'm using competitions for that =P
     
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  3. Bamboo

    Bamboo Regular Member

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    My friend is always an administrator on my forums I make. But mostly because he knows what he's doing. But I only hire people who will do the job right and take it seriously, not because they're my friend.
     
  4. Angel

    Angel Regular Member

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    Well this all comes down to like back then would you rather hire your friends/family or someone that knows more experienced. I pick someone with more experience :P
     
  5. Trealix

    Trealix Gamer

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    I done that and people laughed in there face
     
  6. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    I don't hire friends as staff unless they're a community builder like myself, or a moderator from another community - and know how to run/manage a forum. If you hire friends - then make sure they're willing to work hard, so that your community can grow and you don't have to fire them.
     
  7. Fiona1964

    Fiona1964 Regular Member

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    Only 1 member of staff is my friend but he knows what he is doing
    and helps me a lot with the ACP as I did not know what to do when I first started
     
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  8. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Long as they know what they are doing its fine, but alot dont...
     
  9. hissae2

    hissae2 Regular Member

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    There's a forum I'm on where the 2 admins and mod all are good friends in real life. It's a popular forum as well. I hate when forums do that.
     
  10. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Well as I mentioned if they know what they are doing its completly fine, but most of the time it isn't.
     
  11. John15

    John15 Regular Member

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    I would agree with Kaiser, hiring friends as staff just because of your friendship with them is not the right thing to do.
     
  12. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    Yes, this is a common practice for me, as I trust them. However, sometimes it does backfire and damage your friendship when they let you down without notice :(
     
  13. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Friends usually help out a lot - I have some that aren't even moderators, and they focus on driving more activity to our community. Friends are great.
     
  14. Joshua Farrell

    Joshua Farrell Regular Member

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    I normally hire people based upon experience. The one time I tried giving one of my brothers power, I soon learned he had next to no administrative experience, and let spam slide just to mock the spammer.

    So yeah, I would pick experience over loyalty.
     
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  15. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Yea thats my main point to this thread... experience over loyalty. If my friend has no experience im not hiring him just because of our friendship and I expect him to understand.
     
  16. Rankin

    Rankin Regular Member

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    Maybe having a friend as the other admin, like creating the forum together is okay, but theres no need for the whole forum team to be your friends. If you argue with them, are you going to fire them? Just to re-hire them if you begin talking again? On the whole of this topic, I would base the forum team on experience and knowledge.
     
  17. Shole93

    Shole93 Regular Member

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    I do not hire friends because I don't like to fire them when they stop doing anything....
    And yeah I think its a bad idea to hire your friends....well except they are into administrating a forum then its a good idea. Also if you want to avoid problems the best is to make your friend VIP member :D
     
  18. AbuTaj

    AbuTaj Regular Member

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    I've only ever had people I know personally as Admins, for one. And in the beginning that's how my moderator team was too. I even met people from the forum before I made them mods.

    It's worked a charm for me. At least you KNOW you can trust them.
     
  19. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    I mean there is no problem if they have experience and know what they are doing but the purpose for this discussion is about admins just hiring friends because of friendship whether they have experience or not.
     

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