"Understand"

One thing or possible theme in my life, is the feeling of not being understood. I don't expect people to, nor am I actually sure there really is something to understand. One thing I do know for sure is I have a certain environment I want my store have. To "create this environment" I go only on my gut instinct. More often than not it may be illogical, but at the same time I know deep down inside whether it is how I truly want it. To maintain this feel along with a respectable level of income derived from it, I must pay close attention to areas of concern. One area which might be the toughest is the hiring of a new employee. This is definitely the area that seems to irritate more customers than I feel is fair. Whenever I lose an employee, I am bombarded with people that want to work here. The problem lies in the fact that no matter who I hire, I am going to get my fair share of "looks" that I don't deserve. Just so everyone knows,
I base my hire on four main factors. While there is no scientific method to guarantee a great employee, I feel I have developed I very good understanding of who will, and who would not work out. So people know my four main factors are as follows:
1. Job history. The type of jobs you work as well as how long you stay with each of them.
2. Responsibility. Do you maintain multiple jobs, drive a nice well maintained car, go to school
and work at the same time, take good care of your child, etc. Or have you lived the same
carefree existance for quite a while without getting any further ahead in life. I've always felt if you have a hard time managing your own life, how are you going to manage mine?
3. Most important and hardest to explain is whether I feel you have the personality to maintain and add to the aura of my store. I believe stongly in chemistry and the fact that one wrong addition can ruin the whole balance. Depending on what I feel is missing determines who my next hire will be. While I chose Jenny over many well qualified applicants, I do not for one second feel I made a mistake. With her I saw spirit, determination, responsibility, and she was looking for a second job. Only time will tell as to whether I was right, but I am very happy with my decision.
4. Last really tiny factor, but worth mentioning, I try to hire people who are not tied to current or ex employees. Often they come in biased or problems seem to arise more often than not. Just history, nothing more.