The Pyrite Principle, Part 4: Glittering Titles, Hidden Traps
- Michael Troxell
- Sep 1
- 3 min read
Not all deception comes from a dark place. Sometimes it comes with polish, poise, and a job title that sounds too good to be true.
Many of us have seen it—or lived it. A job listing shows up that promises vision, collaboration, meaningful work, and great leadership. But after the interviews and onboarding, you begin to feel it: something’s off. The title sparkled, but the job stinks. You were hired to lead, but you’re babysitting broken systems. You were told you’d build strategy, but you’re buried under busywork.
This bait-and-switch tactic happens more often than we admit. Companies will glam up a job title or fluff the description to attract high-level candidates they wouldn’t otherwise get. Then, once the ink dries, the glitter starts to flake.
But it’s not just employers who do this. Candidates do it too. Some build beautiful résumés with grandiose phrasing, polished interviews, and enough buzzwords to sell a TED Talk. But then, three weeks into the job, the cracks show—late arrivals, blame-shifting, passive resistance, and toxic whispers around the break room.
Sometimes the danger isn’t even obvious. It’s subtle and slow. You don’t realize you’ve hired fool’s gold until you start noticing the cultural erosion: fractured trust, low morale, and frustrated team members.
While I have hired many amazing team members, I have also hired more than one bad apple in my career. One hire in particular seemed perfect—charismatic, experienced, articulate. But soon, quiet complaints started surfacing. Nothing big at first, just a few unsettling comments. I remembered what my dad once told me: “If you leave a skunk alone long enough, it’ll eventually begin to stink.” And he was right. Eventually, the picture became clear: the hire was undermining the culture and the leadership team from within.
It took time, evidence, and a unified team to remove him without making things worse. But the damage lingered. Trust takes time to build—and only seconds to lose. Toxic people leave the impression that it is very costly to hold them accountable, but in actuality the highest cost is inactivity and that cost continues to rise as the delay increases. The cost is seen in devastation to team trust and morale, the disengagement of key team members, and increased turnover.
So how do we prevent this? And when it happens, how do we deal with it?
Practical Takeaways
For Hiring Leaders:
Vet beyond the glitter. Don’t just interview for skill—interview for character, humility, and cultural fit.
Don’t oversell. Tell the truth about the role, including the hard parts. If honesty scares away candidates, they weren’t the right ones.
Trust patterns, not exceptions. Look for consistency in behavior, not just one good interview.
Act early but wisely. If red flags start showing, pay attention. Document. Investigate. Don’t let fear of litigation keep you from protecting the team.
The ancient wisdom in Ecclesiastes 8:11 reminds us that delayed consequences for wrong doing encourage continued bad behavior. Building and maintaining healthy culture demands timely accountability.
In many teams and families, we confuse production with character. A toxic person who produces results often becomes untouchable—not because their behavior is acceptable, but because our biases convince us to overlook the damage they cause. These blind spots—like the halo effect and recency bias—shield dysfunction under the glitter of success.
For Candidates:
Be real—but strategic. You don’t have to air all your past wounds in an interview. Frame your story with honesty and dignity. Don’t lie, but don’t self-sabotage either.
Focus on alignment. Look for more than compensation. Ask about culture, expectations, and leadership. Ask, “What’s something about this job that might surprise me?”
Rebuild from pain. If you’re coming out of a toxic environment, do the personal work first. Seek healing before trying to lead again.
For Teams After a Toxic Hire:
Debrief with compassion. Acknowledge what happened. Don’t pretend it didn’t affect the team.
Rebuild trust intentionally. Be transparent about what went wrong, and how it will be prevented in the future.
Model accountability. Show your team that the standard is real—and applies to everyone.
When a Team Member Grows Misaligned:
Check in first. Sometimes it’s not defiance—it’s burnout, confusion, or grief.
If needed, be direct. Say, “I think we’ve grown in different directions. Let’s talk about whether this is still a fit.”
Compassion and accountability can coexist. They must.
Final Thought
In both hiring and job-seeking, clarity is kindness. Misleading others may get you in the door—but it won’t keep you there. The shimmer of titles, perks, or polished language will fade. What’s real will remain. And what’s fake will eventually show itself.
The challenge for all of us—leaders, teams, and candidates alike—is to be gold, not glitter.
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