When You Lose a Lovely Labrador

Forget recruiting a purple squirrel. What happens when you find, hire, and train a lovely Labrador, only to discover she isn’t cut out for the job?

Such is the story of Lulu, as reported by The New York Times and others.

Hiring

To be clear, Lulu is an actual Labrador retriever; she’s not a metaphor for a rare job candidate. She was “hired” by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to sniff bombs, based on her qualifications.
Labrador retrievers generally are good at the work – as the Times reports, dogs can detect approximately 19,000 scents. So why not hired a year and half old beautiful black Lab, even if the candidate is a bit on the small side?
And so Lulu was enrolled in bomb school, a six-week, seven-days-a-week course, where dogs learn to detect threats. After the course, dogs train one-on-one with handlers, for 10 weeks.
Lulu’s onboarding problems began early. A statement at the CIA website reads: “A few weeks into training, Lulu began to show signs that she wasn’t interested in detecting explosive odors. All dogs, just like most human students, have good days and bad days when learning something new. The same is true during our puppy classes. A pup might begin acting lazy, guessing where the odors are, or just showing a general disregard for whatever is being taught at the moment. Usually it lasts for a day, maybe two.”
With this in mind, the new employee with the soulful eyes was given the benefit of the doubt.

Firing

But a career in bomb sniffing wasn’t Lulu’s destiny.
The CIA reports: “For some dogs, like Lulu, it becomes clear that the issue isn’t temporary. Instead, this just isn’t the job they are meant for. Lulu was no longer interested in searching for explosives. Even when they could motivate her with food and play to search, she was clearly not enjoying herself any longer. Our trainers’ top concern is the physical and mental well-being of our dogs, so they made the extremely difficult decision to do what’s best for Lulu and drop her from the program.”

Not a Fit

Lest you worry about Lulu’s fate, the CIA also reports: “Lulu was adopted by her loving handler, who had the chance to work with her during imprint training. She now enjoys her days playing with his kids, sniffing out rabbits and squirrels in the backyard, and eating meals and snacks out of a dog dish. We’ll miss Lulu, but this was the right decision for her. We wish her all the best in her new life.”
Could it be that Lulu got wind that the bomb-sniffing job requires a 60-hour workweek, for seven or eight years?
The moral of the story, in case you haven’t figured it out, is that a candidate may appear to have all the qualifications for the job – and appear comparable to other candidates who have succeeded in the same or similar positions. Nevertheless, she may not have an interest in using her skills for the position.
Some organizations screen out such employees early on. For example, Lulu’s human counterparts, police officers, have to graduate from an academy prior to active duty. This allows for further skills assessment, as well as additional time for both parties to consider fit.
Granted, not all hiring organizations have such programs in place. Be that as it may, Lulu’s story serves as a reminder to all organizations about the potential pitfalls of making assumptions, and the importance of catching a mis-hire early … even if it means losing a lovely Labrador.

Paula Santonocito, Contributing Editor for Recruiting Daily Advisor, is a business journalist specializing in employment issues. She is the author of more than 1,000 articles on a wide range of human resource and career topics, with an emphasis on recruiting and hiring. Her articles have been featured in many global and domestic publications and information outlets, referenced in academic and legal publications as well as books, and translated into several languages.