Evan Carmichael responds to a viewer feeling penalized for being nice at work. He says the problem isn't kindness but a mismatch with company culture. He hires nice people explicitly, using job postings as a filter, and advises seeking employers who reward kindness as an asset rather than changing yourself for a toxic environment.
Chapters
Is kindness a weakness? I got a great message from one of my YouTube viewers— love you guys— who wrote in asking about one of my videos where I talked about I like to hire nice people. It's true, I like to hire nice people. I often put that on the job description that I like hiring nice people, and she's worried that She's too nice a person. So let me read what she wrote. She wrote in to say, I love that your company hires nice people. My last job, I was told in the interview, you seem like a nice person, and that's cute and all, but what can you offer this company? I got the job and I went from positive to negative and sad. I realized I was absorbing all their bad energy and ideals. I'm struggling to find a new job now, and I find myself wondering if being nice has anything to do with it. Yet it felt like poison to my soul, so staying was not an option. I have a question: how do I have my kindness not taken for weakness? What am I doing wrong? Here's my view: you're not doing anything wrong, okay? You're just not working with the right companies. When I say I like hiring nice people, I put that in my job description. Some people, they read that and they laugh and they say, this is stupid, come on, you like hiring nice people? Who writes that in a job description? That's stupid. I don't want you working at my company. That's cool, man. If you don't like it, don't apply. They're gonna self-eliminate. And then people like you, who felt like you are a genuinely nice person, you're gonna read that and say, ah, finally, I can't wait to apply there. That's the difference, because you're never going to be happy with your work. You're never gonna feel fulfilled with what you're doing if you're forcing yourself to work in a culture that doesn't fit you. If you're forcing yourself to work work with people who are not nice and you're super nice, it's never going to work. I hate working with people who aren't nice. It just, it drives me nuts. And I love working with people who are nice. So make it clear, these are the types of people that we're looking for. That's the company you need to find. And it's not just about being nice. It's whatever characteristic you have, whatever personality trait you have, whatever you believe in. You want to work at a company that respects and honors that. If you're really competitive, you want to work at a company where everything is really competitive. You wouldn't have fun probably at a government job that's super boring. That wouldn't be for you because it's not competitive enough. You're going to be happy. So if you're nice, you got to go out and find nice companies, people who talk about this, people who live this. So you're not doing anything wrong. You don't need to change yourself. You just need to find a culture at a company that fits you, and it's worth spending the time to do it right so you don't get locked into one bad job after another bad job after another bad job. You want a company who sees you as being nice as an asset, will pay you more for that, than a company that says, "Oh, you're nice, I don't know what you can do for the business." So don't change who you are, change the company that you work for. Believe. For those of you watching, you like this video, please give it a thumbs up below. You want to see more like this, you have a comment, you have a question, leave it below in the comment section. I'll make a video response. And if you like the channel, subscribe so you can see more videos just like this. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
