I officially entered the workforce when I was 16. Unofficially I had been working summers for at least 3 years prior. I’d hear managers and business owners complain about how hard it was to find “good people.” Initially, I understood “good people” to mean people who were reliable. That was about it. Would they show up when they were supposed to? Would they do their work reasonably well?
I never understood “good people” to mean people who’d perform at a very high level. It seemed to me they mostly just wanted people they could depend on.
Whenever the places I worked as a kid were looking for help they’d often ask the rest of us (employees), “Do you guys know anybody?” Most of us were afraid to suggest somebody for fear it’d reflect badly on us. So much for trusting our friends, huh?