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RushKing
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11 Mar 2014, 5:21 pm

Do you believe personality tests should be banned? I generaly believe they should besides few exeptions. I believe they are abused by the state and private sector. I think they disproportionately effect the employment rates of neuro-minorities and independent thinkers.



TallyMan
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12 Mar 2014, 7:59 am

I'm not sure they should be banned or not; but your argument is sound. When personality test first came out I failed a job interview (for a software developer position) due to one. I'd already been interviewed twice by the person who would have been my boss and the job was as good as mine, he'd said as much but his company's human resource department had recently introduced personality test and I did one such test. It must have made alarm bells ring because I didn't get the job. I can only guess that aspects of Asperger's appeared in the test and put them off, despite the fact that people with Asperger's often have a great natural ability with programming.

An extension of the argument is whether or not DNA profiles should be used by insurance companies to reject applications for health insurance because of a predisposition towards various illnesses such as coronary heart disease or diabetes?

You could argue that employers have the right to get the "best" person for the job and that insurance companies need to protect their risk; but where does it leave those of us with neurological differences or less than perfect genetic profile. Is it in effect a disguised form of Eugenics? Those of us that don't meet the "standard" find ourself out in the cold and left to perish.


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sonofghandi
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12 Mar 2014, 8:26 am

TallyMan wrote:
You could argue that employers have the right to get the "best" person for the job and that insurance companies need to protect their risk; but where does it leave those of us with neurological differences or less than perfect genetic profile. Is it in effect a disguised form of Eugenics? Those of us that don't meet the "standard" find ourself out in the cold and left to perish.


IQ tests are illegal, but personality tests are A-OK.


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TheGoggles
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12 Mar 2014, 10:24 am

When it comes to those tests, dishonesty is the best policy. There are guides online that help you game the system. Don't feel bad about using them. The company doesn't care about you, why should you give them any respect in return?



zer0netgain
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12 Mar 2014, 10:41 am

I think they should be almost totally banned.

I understand the idea of a personality test and trying to avoid "bad fits" for your company, but these tests ARE NOT designed to accommodate people with disabilities who can otherwise do the job and get along with co-workers via reasonable accommodation.

Frankly, most every place that makes me take one imposes it with (a) no box to check to flag that I am a person with a disability for whom the test may not (can not) evaluate correctly and/or (b) forced upon me at a point where I've not had the opportunity to indicate I am a person under a disability who needs special consideration for employment.

This makes such screening tools inherently discriminatory against the disabled or anyone who suffers a manageable personality disorder where they could still do the job duties required and professionally work with others.