There are times when we have to explore the possible futures.

Like it or not, we have to ponder both the good and the bad. Today I’ll look at the downside, and next week at the upside.

Some folks are naturally pessimistic. I’ve tried to focus on optimism, but there are times I have to try to balance – especially when making big decisions.

Imagine that you’re wondering whether to open up a new position in your business. It’s great that you’ll be able to get more work done, and finally fill in some skills which have been sorely lacking.

What’s the downside? Well, you’ll have to afford both the salary as well as benefits. Perhaps this will push you to get a larger office, or entertain someone who will be working remotely.

Now there’s always the possibility that whatever person you hire will be incompetent, and that informs how you will need to carefully qualify the right person. But that also causes us to think about the impact that this will have on the rest of the team, so we start a list of the things we’ll need to do to properly integrate a new person into our particular group. Especially as this may impact others’ roles and even job goals.

It’s even possible that this new position may impact customers and partners, supervisors, and even the business owner. Fair enough, and that helps us start some lists about what to pay attention to, setting the person up for success, and making introductions.

It’s possible to get really dark. The new person could be running an illegal operation on the side. They might come in with an entirely obnoxious attitude. The economy could experience another COVID-19 and then you can’t afford that employee anymore.

I recommend that you don’t go too far down this hole of despair. It might kick off doing a background check, or particular interview questions, or disaster recovery planning – but in general these are larger business issues that don’t have much to do with this particular job opening. So don’t go too far in this direction.

Next week: The upside!