Daron PachecoCEO, Howdy Media · Brand Builder

Is your culture being poisoned by the wrong hire?

25 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt, the speaker emphasizes that a hire who does not align with an organization’s culture can act as a toxin to that culture, even though the individual isn’t necessarily a bad person. They explain that mismatched backgrounds or histories can cause cultural friction, and highlight the difficulty leaders face when they need to make personnel changes to protect the existing culture, stressing that the issue is about fit rather than personal failure.

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Yeah, I think it's 1,000% because not everybody's going to fit into our culture. Now, does that mean they're a bad person? Absolutely not. Maybe they have a different past. They have a different history with a different kind of culture or whatever. And so I think it's toxic. It's poison. And, you know, people get their feelings hurt when you talk to them like we've had to make changes over the years. And there again, not saying you did a bad job. I'm saying you don't fit our culture. And so that goes back to what we said a while ago. It's hard because you're trying to protect that culture.