Personality Tests - Discrimination against the nuerodiverse

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^Not lying is seen as childish. Being told to grow up, I get this a lot too, as if other peoples dishonesty is my fault, and something I should adapt to.

I had to take one of these tests for a work experience placement. There were questions such as; "Would you consider yourself an optimist?", "Are you often cheerful?", "Do you smile a lot?" and so on.

The honest answer to these questions for me would be: No, I would not consider myself an optimist and have a tendency to be pessimistic. Sometimes I am cheerful, but not often. I don't smile that much, unless I'm in a really good mood.

But I just lied and put strongly agree for any questions asking if I loved people, risks, and being super duper optimistic. I passed the test and got an interview, which I ended up failing miserably. The questions were difficult, plenty of ones I didn't anticipate came up, such as; "What has been your greatest sacrifice in life?"

I've lived a privileged life for the most part, so I haven't had to make many sacrifices. The placement was just for office work, but by the dramatic questions they asked you'd think it was for extreme sports whilst simultaneously serving customers or something.

Yeah, I understand that some of these are just to test if you can think on your feet, which I usually can, but thinking of an answer for the question above within a space of a few minutes was exceptionally difficult.

Usually I get INTP or INFP (thinking and feeling scores are often close to 50/50), and I agree that most of these personality tests look for extroverted individuals. I tend to lie on these tests, and act more extroverted and risk taking than I actually am.

Depends on the test.

I did a practical problem solving challenge once for a job that was all about solving puzzles by identifying patterns, combinations of images and predicting the next image - they interviewed me first!

Not all test are created equal.

Regarding the idea of lying to give the expected answers - I wonder if that is actually the purpose of the test sometimes. That is, in part it is a test of whether you are able to discard your real personality while at work so that, on demand, you can produce the traits that the employer desires. After all, it makes no difference to the employer whether your behaviour is your genuine personality or not, only that you are compliant in behaving in the ways that they expect.

I have had several co-workers in the past who surely got through the test for being "a good team worker" who have absolutely no team spirit at all when alone with colleagues, but who seem to be able to amply demonstrate this whenever a manager is watching - and will then gas-light if other team members point out the disruption that they cause.

I would have to say that if an employer is using these sorts of tests to determine who to hire then very likely these aren't good employers to begin with. I don't see how these tests are scientifically valid nor relevant to the actual job positions they are given for. Even for jobs that might legitimately require a psych test (like in some security related jobs, for example) the testing process is only partially effective at selecting candidates from what I understand.

aikoinazuma

granted. however, i have applied for plenty of minimum wage jobs, and many of them had personality tests.

so what, if employers that give personality tests are bad employers? there are so many of them, it is not practical to just correctly conclude that they would have been bad employers anyways.

legally, if it is not an "essential function" of the job, requiring something is then "discrimination". but right now, personality tests for work are still legal.

it's kind of hard to imagine that "personality tests" might not be discrimination against someone with personality disorders.

introverts often get screened out of personality tests.

maybe ten years later someone will win a civil lawsuit and personality tests will become illegal, for work.

however it takes a lot of $$ to take out a civil lawsuit.

and just b/c someone has the moral high road, does not guarantee the outcome.

KMart, Toys R Us, Aaron Brothers. personality test after personality test. weird questions like, on cold nights i sleep with the window open . or even though i am not always polite, i always have a good reason".

it appears that, introverts, and especially autistics have a serious disadvantage in finding jobs.

job networking.

job interviews.

job personality tests.

many job descriptions require multitasking, "outgoing", customer service, work in teams.

introvert jobs - much fewer than extrovert jobs. and introvert jobs tend to be STEM. or something like that.

^^^There is no emoji for nodding in agreement so please imagine one.

Trogluddite

In a book about job personality test questions, it claims that the tests have a "lie scale" and detects inconsistencies in answers.

Although, questions like true or false I smile more often than most people , have no "truth" because they are so vague. Unless you took a videotape of "most people" and with a stopwatch measured how often they smile. So there is no "lie". But allegedly, according to the book, there is a "lie scale"

The tests have a disclaimer of there is no right or wrong answer. Tell the truth .

Wrong.

Any answer that is not what they define as the model answer, and you can't even submit the job application online. So no job interview. So no job.

The jobs that require those personality tests tend to be minimum wage type. The exceptions are jobs where personality really does matter. Police and firefighter.

Maybe the applicants that apply for those jobs do not have enough $$ to take out a civil lawsuit against a corporation.

Some lawyers charge six hundred dollars per billable hour

Some lawsuits take over two years

Just because someone has the moral high road, does not guarantee the outcome will be favorable

Having said that, I have had at least 36 counselors. Includes psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers

And sometimes I wonder if they should have been subjected to personality tests

Before getting a job

In my experience usually employers that require these personality quizzes and tests tend to be bad as employers since the tests are not pertinent to the job and are easily fudged. I've interviewed and worked at places that had these tests (in the few times I did actually pass the test by luck) and they always seemed very dysfunctional. As a customer I've found that these same companies and institutions are often times not the highest caliber places to do business with or such due to them being dysfunctional.

I will agree, though, that introverts and Aspies have a harder time getting jobs in the industries that use these tests.

Department of Rehab diagnosed 6 out of 10 personality disorders in me

autism, diagnosed officially

introvert

Gender Identity Disorder, diagnosed

only had minimum wage jobs

How could personality tests not discriminate against the neurodiverse?

but whatever. california is an "at will" employer anyways

I think that these tests do discriminate against the neurodiverse but they also tend to marginalize a lot of NTs as well. Most of the personality traits desired by the tests are not common even with quite a few NTs.

I'm not a big fan of them, either. I typically try to answer high on Agreeability and Conscientiousness questions, and honestly answer lower on Extroversion. So that I would come across as friendly but quiet and nonconfrontational, which I can do well. I think my responses were pretty good for that.

I find not being completely honest so exhausting and frustrating that I give up in the middle and apply somewhere else instead.

Fluffysaurus

Some of the questions do not have an "honest" answer.

One question asked if, given the chance, "most people" would cheat to get ahead

There is no "honest" answer to that question

I think this is intended to filter out people who think more negatively of others. The reasoning might be that someone who believes people are good and not cheaters (whether or not this is true) would be friendlier and easier to work with. Some questions seem like they're measuring how someone thinks.

Isn't that exactly what they want? Customer has a problem -> equivocate, ignore their question, give canned responses until customer with problem goes away. Happens more than half the time I send a support ticket anywhere...
An honest employee would help the customer even if it ends up costing the company, so BIG NONO

Anyway just adding my personal rant to these personality tests. I failed one last week and still have no clue why. I answered all questions prioritizing safety (the job involves high voltage and driving a company vehicle) and tried to come across as agreeable and sociable but didn't always pick the "strongly" option in the social questions (I now read on the Internet that this is "wrong"). They even had really tricky ones like "What's more important at work: a) money b) doing a good job c) socializing with coworkers" and I pick b) because work is not supposed to be a bar where you pick up friends????? Even if I actually tend to enjoy the social aspect the most at workplaces. I like people but I'm not life of the party or there to drink beers with everyone every Friday. How am I even supposed to pick a correct answer to this question???

Of course, you never get feedback. You just spent 2 years taking a course created by this company and your professor kept saying how everyone from their award winning program has always gotten hired. Then you completely fail at this test stage (no one ever even gets to test you on job relevant skills), email your professor to ask for help and hear nothing back...