I absolutely do judge someone by their past. Particularly when specific past acts have been repeated again and again and again. I give it much greater weight than promises of what they might do in the future.
The past is the only thing that we have to objectively judge abilities and project the future.
In any case, I don't ask people to agree with my judgement. I ask them to examine the past themselves, and then make their own judgement as to the likely future.
Sure, I believe in giving people a second and even a third chance.
But let me digress a second, and tell you a story, related to a contract I had many years ago. They wrote me a check, and it bounced. They replaced it, once they figured-out what was wrong. My check bouncing, and one other odd event tipped them off that their accountant had been stealing from them. Shortly after my check bounced, their main supplier of electronic components cut off their credit.
Turns out the accountant had an accomplice at the electronic supplier. The accountant would write the checks in erasable ink. The accomplice would retrieve the checks from the mail, change the payee, and cash them. Of course, the payments were never posted to the supplier's account, and the recorded bank account balance was wrong, because she was changing the amounts of the checks as well.
This woman was caught red-handed and did 6 months in the pokey.
She got a job on a work-release program when she got out. (She was supposed to do more than 6 months.) After just a couple of months, she was arrested for stealing from her new employer, and sent back to the pokey.
Guess what her new job was on the work-release program?
Bank teller.
Sure, I think people deserve a second chance. But let's not be stupid while giving them that chance. |
