Yes, Everyone in Your Organization Has an Expiration Date


We got home from vacation recently and like most families we were foraging through the cupboards and refrigerator to make dinner our first night back home.
I poured some milk for my son, and he asked me, “Is that milk all right?” like somehow I hadn’t considered its feelings, but he mostly was asking “was it still good?”
Sure, the expiration date had passed a day or so prior, but I did the Dad smell test and that milk was more than all right! He wasn’t in agreement, so our “all right” milk took a trip to never-gonna-get-drunk-land down the sink.
Expiration dates on food are great. They help us understand when something goes bad, protects us from ourselves, and what we think is good and bad, which can be subjective.
All of this makes me think that we should have expiration dates on our employees!
It was recently rumored that Detroit Tigers Manager Brad Ausmus is probably going to get fired after this season. He was a popular hire two years ago and led the Tigers to the playoffs. This year, though, the Tigers have not met expectations with a team filled with high priced talent.
So, why has his expiration date come up? It’s all about expectations.
Once you gain success, it’s not good enough to maintain that success or, God forbid, go backwards. You have to keep getting more successful. The only way Ausmus gets more successful is to win the World Series, which is tough to do.
There are a number of other reasons people should have expiration dates with organizations. These include:
This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.