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Norm Feuti covered those stupid personality tests in "Pretending You Care," but he was only responding specifically to the ones applied by retail stores. He pointed out that the tests are administered by middle managers trying to look like they're doing due diligence on job applications when there's no way to winnow out all the potential bad seeds from a nationwide retail organization hiring and firing hundreds of people a day.
"Have you ever known anyone who has ever stolen anything from a store?" was his example. It's a ridiculous question on its face, he says - have you EVER known ANYONE who EVER stole ANYTHING? Of course you have. We all have. Unfortunately, the correct answer is "no." The question is being asked by a Distant Manager, and those executives don't live in the real world. They live in Executive World. What they're really asking is, "Do you hang out with thieves?"
So if you answer that question honestly, you fail. If you can guess the answer they want, you pass. It means the tests are essentially useless, but whatever it takes to pretend you're working, I guess.
"Have you ever known anyone who has ever stolen anything from a store?" was his example. It's a ridiculous question on its face, he says - have you EVER known ANYONE who EVER stole ANYTHING? Of course you have. We all have. Unfortunately, the correct answer is "no." The question is being asked by a Distant Manager, and those executives don't live in the real world. They live in Executive World. What they're really asking is, "Do you hang out with thieves?"
So if you answer that question honestly, you fail. If you can guess the answer they want, you pass. It means the tests are essentially useless, but whatever it takes to pretend you're working, I guess.
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