afraid to ask. But must. Weaponized teatime???

yes! Do explain...

been recruiting a new member of his raft of otters. Brought two people in this week for in-person interviews.

realized that one of the candidates was a very good cultural fit from the beginning. The interview went amazingly positively, so I extended a verbal offer.

a leadership style that's very much about individualized attention and being approachable and leads a team that you can tell very much likes and respects each other.

invited said candidate over for tea on Thursday, so that they'd be really able to meet the team outside of the context of trying to impress us.

did so with the awareness that the candidate has other offers and that he was using teatime with a cohesive team and caring manager as a weapon.

this tends to load people's brains up on the intangibles. There's no dollar value to liking your coworkers or the opportunities I'll give this candidate to go from junior awesome to senior awesome.

(a) manager(s) like you.