Bite-sized dental wisdom in under 2 minutes.

I started watching that new season of Jury Duty because it’s funny and ridiculous and exactly the kind of show you can put on when you don’t feel like thinking too hard.

The setup is absurd. There’s a fake company, fake employees played by actors, a fake retreat, and one real temp assistant at the center of it all.

So obviously the expectation is that you’re going to watch this guy kind of fumble around and awkwardly survive whatever insane situation they put him in.

And then after maybe 20 minutes, I was like… wait. This guy’s actually pretty good.

He’s likable. He cares about people. He starts getting invested. He gives people advice. He’s paying attention. He acts like he actually wants the company to do well.

And I’m sitting there thinking: this guy is a temp. A temp!

He’s there for what, two weeks?
He knows he’s leaving.
And somehow he’s becoming the emotional center of the business.

Meanwhile in real life, we’re all trying to hire people for real jobs with real pay and real benefits, and I rarely get this level of involvement from people who are supposedly there for the long haul.

Now yes, I get it. It’s a TV show.
The actors are nudging things along.
They’re giving him situations to react to.

But still. The guy is genuinely nice and he clearly cares.

And it made me think about how often we hire for the wrong thing.

We say we want someone caring, motivated, helpful, positive, adaptable, all of that.

But then when it’s time to actually hire, we panic and go straight for technical skill.

Can they verify insurance?
Can they submit claims?
Can they turn over a room?
Can they answer the phones?
Can they run sterilization?

And I get why.

Training is a pain in the ass. Especially if you don’t have real systems set up. So of course the shortcut looks appealing.

But skills are teachable. Caring is not.

So that was my weird takeaway from a ridiculous reality show.

The temp assistant was great.
And instead of just enjoying the show like a normal person, I turned it into a lecture in my own head about hiring.

Classic.

But I do think it’s true:

Most offices hire for experience because it feels easier.
The offices with better systems get to hire for attitude and train the rest.

-Dr. Alex

P.S. If your office keeps hiring for experience because training feels too painful, this is for you. Get the Free New Hire Success Pack - onboarding checklists, training structure, and the stuff that makes it easier to hire the right person instead of just the least inconvenient one.