Scattered Thoughts - Need to pick your brains

If you have read my previous post, this is about it. Ever since my friend asked for my help, there have been things bothering me at the background of my mind. So, I have decided to put them down here and see what my friends in the blogosphere has to say.

First, let me share some historical info:

There are 5 ex-employees of mine working for this particular company. I cannot say I liked them much and in fact, I was relieved when they left my former company on their own. They were making the environment toxic and affecting the others in a negative manner.

Guy 1: The head of the professional services team - He should be able to do what needs to be done in terms of my friend's needs, except that he is lazy. He always has a reason why he cannot do a certain thing. (all those things he could not do, could be done by others).

Guy 2: I actually liked his attitude, appreciated his knowledge and work and sent him to an event in the US, a rare perk of the job. I was hoping he would mentor the new recruits afterwards but, he resigned a week after the trip just because, he was offered a 5% better salary. I was willing to counter-offer but my ex-boss refused it. All that time he was getting ready to go to the US, he knew that he would resign. In my book that is not acceptable. He should have bowed out gracefully and let another colleague go.

Guy 3: Lazy, always complains, never in a good mood.

Guy 4: Lazy, never learns from mistakes. He is supposed to produce marketing material but he never ran a spell check despite being told several times. Always produces inferior quality work that needs to be touched up by someone else.

Gal 1: Did not have much interaction with her since she left shortly after I joined the former company. For all I know, she was known to be rude to the customers. She made an effort to come back but, my former boss did not accept her.

The owner of this company tried to recruit others from our team in the past but, they did not go since they loved my ex-boss and got along well with me as second in command. So, he recruited the bad apples in a way. However, since he did not let anyone go, they must have been working OK I guess. The owner seems satisfied. My ex-boss on the other hand, never liked any of them and when they wanted to leave, he did not move a finger not to lose any of them.

You may be thinking 5 people can not be all bad and there must be something wrong with me too. I am a bit of a perfectionist and even though I know, not everybody can be great, I like to see genuine effort. Not everybody can be an excellent worker but, they should at least try.

I do not think, I want to have anything to do with the above people anymore. I would never hire them, if I were the boss.

So, all the above had been bothering me in the background. My friend needs my support, has joined this company about 5 months ago. She is an excellent salesperson. On financial issues, she can be a pain in the butt, however, overall she is a nice person.

May be I should tell my friend all about this and leave it at that. If there is a way around working as a consultant without having to deal with these people directly, I may consider it.

What do you think?