Thirty or so years ago, one of the staffers I hired at Massachusetts DEP, John Crisley, got another job and left DEP. He told me I was always "Mr. Recycling" to him.
That's not a brag, as people at MA DEP of the time would know. John was a political hire. How did I go from 6 staff to 18 in five years during a hiring freeze? That, I've been told, is part of my "legend" at DEP.
Here's what I did. My predecessors and supervisors actually said things to me such as "don't interview a Viet Nam War veteran - because by interviewing them, you are saying they are qualified, and you could be forced to hire them over a more qualified person you actually want."
Same with "don't interview a state legislator's nominee"...
Same with "don't interview a (currently aka DEI) minority"...
The people giving me this advice/caution were all Democrats lefties. They realized their team had created an "on-ramp" for categories of disadvantaged people, which they supported generally and in principal. But they were whispering perverse consequences.
Today I'm almost afraid to write about "own goals" by my team. The opposing team are assholes who will certainly use it to prove their team is best and never admits an error.
But dialectic, baby. We become stronger by acknowledging our weaknesses (and wakenesses) and mistakes.
