Cloning in a Hiring Freeze
Thirty years ago, one of the staffers I hired at Massachusetts DEP, John Crisley, left for another job. On his way out he told me, “You’ll always be Mr. Recycling to me.”
That wasn’t a brag. Anyone at DEP back then knows that nickname came with baggage.
John was a political hire. And here’s the question that became part of my so-called “legend”: how did I grow my program from six staff to eighteen during a statewide hiring freeze?
Here’s how.
When I first became Recycling Program Manager, my predecessors and supervisors gave me whispered advice:
“Don’t interview a Vietnam veteran — if you do, you’re saying they’re qualified, and you might be forced to hire them.”
“Don’t interview a legislator’s nominee.”
“Don’t interview a minority candidate.”
This advice came from Democrats — good people, progressive people — who believed in creating on-ramps for disadvantaged categories. But they also understood the unintended consequences of the system they’d built. They were warning me about the traps.
Today it feels risky to admit “own goals” from your own team. The other team will weaponize it.
But dialectic, baby. We get stronger by acknowledging our weaknesses — and our wakenesses — instead of pretending we never had any.