To ask you to tell me if you’ve ever had a bad vibe from someone and been proven right?

[ethelfleda]

Have you ever met someone and felt that something wasn’t right with them? That they give off a bad vibe or get your spidey senses tingling? But you can’t quite figure out why? And then been proven right?

I’m asking because I’ve had this with a new co-worker (and experienced it before and been proved right)

I’m just curious to see if any of you have a sixth sense about such people!

Oh Parkhead - so sorry.

I rely on my instincts a lot at work.

A couple of years ago, there was a murder a few miles away, and the names of both defendants rang a bell with me, so I checked them out on our database. One of them was a client I'd assessed and recommended no home visits, because he gave me the willies. The other was a client I'd assessed who gave me a bad feeling, and a lot of digging around established that he had a history of violence that he hadn't disclosed; we didn't accept his referral because of that. The pair of them had beaten a man to death.

Another client was one I'd only meet in the community, a couple of years after I finished working with him he went to prison for 15 years for two separate offences of rape.

It's not always bad though. A colleague and I assessed a man who was an alcoholic. We both felt (for no discernible reason that we could put our fingers on) that he actually had MH issues and was self-medicating. My colleague specifically felt that he was bi-polar. We encouraged him to get help for his MH and back came his diagnosis: rapid cycle bipolar disorder. (I was hugely impressed by this - my colleague was 22, had previously worked in a bank, and had NO experience of working with people with mental illness. Her instincts are absolutely spot on, and 9 years on just get better and better.)

Another recommendation for Malcolm Gladwell - Blink. Really amazing book which starts off with the idea that often our gut instinct about something is correct. The first example is about an antique that was bought for millions and there were several people who said it was a fake but couldn't articulate how....lots of scientific tests which proved it wasn't. But still 'didn't feel right'....cue more investigation (won't go into detail), it was absolutely a fake.

So if you're not sure about something, absolutely trust your instincts!

How does this help you? Isnt it just bias confirmation? Why not ask people if they've ever had a bad feeling about someone and been proven wrong.
No, my instinct has never ever been proved wrong. And in my earlier example I really wanted/needed that job to work out and I did absolutely everything I could to try to make it happen. But like @Piffpaff my boss was so difficult to work for that it impacted my professional career and my confidence for many years later. I still feel ripples today, decades later.