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Would you do this at a job interview?

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or have them on the shop floor for an hour doing something like, oh I don't know, selling shoes maybe?

or mooing like a cow LOL

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I think the interviewers were mocking the candidates. But an interview is a two way process, it's as much to see if the employers meet the expectations of the potential employee. There is no way I would work for someone who thinks it is okay to humiliate someone when they're in a vulnerable position.

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These types of exercise are designed to determine whether people are suitable for the job. It's better to do this at the interview stage than to discover it once someone has started.

 

For instance, the bag on head, mooing game play will determine useful characteristics such as trust, ability to function in a stressful environment plus other useful traits for someone dealing with strangers on a daily basis.

 

Alternatively, you could ask the applicant if they have all the above traits and rely on them telling the truth.

 

As an employer, which would you prefer?

 

An employee can be trustworthy, able to work in a stressful environment and at the same time refusing to play stupid games :)

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Couldn't agree more.

 

As for the task being used to prove candidates can follow instructions - wasn't blind obedience one of Hitler's requirements?

 

It also says something about the managers at this place that they want to hire people who will blindly follow managers instructions no matter how stupid the instructions are.

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These types of exercise are designed to determine whether people are suitable for the job. It's better to do this at the interview stage than to discover it once someone has started.

 

For instance, the bag on head, mooing game play will determine useful characteristics such as trust, ability to function in a stressful environment plus other useful traits for someone dealing with strangers on a daily basis.

 

Alternatively, you could ask the applicant if they have all the above traits and rely on them telling the truth.

 

As an employer, which would you prefer?

 

Having worked in retail I can't see the need for such nonsense, it's not exactly taxing work.

 

One of the main concerns is finding reliable people and managing to hold onto them, you might have some people who aren't as gregarious as others - but they turn up on time, everytime it's better than those who phone in a sickie every week because they've been out all night.

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Having worked in retail I can't see the need for such nonsense, it's not exactly taxing work.

 

One of the main concerns is finding reliable people and managing to hold onto them, you might have some people who aren't as gregarious as others - but they turn up on time, everytime it's better than those who phone in a sickie every week because they've been out all night.

 

I agree.

 

Maybe these role play situations, (bags on head, mooing like a cow) is to see who has low enough self-esteem to be a malleable, easily controlled employee who won't complain no matter how bad his working conditions get...

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It also says something about the managers at this place that they want to hire people who will blindly follow managers instructions no matter how stupid the instructions are.

 

Maybe they're looking for someone very compliant who they can get a lot of unpaid overtime out of. People with their self-respect still intact might be less inclined to put up with crap from management.

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I once went for an interview,it was to be held in a portacabin next to the reception when I was called in I opened the door to see a long table with five long faced misery guts staring at me I blurted out "Never expected the Spanish inquisition" and started to laugh, didn't get the job.

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Yup, putting a bag on your head and pretending to be a cow is totally relevant to selling shoes. This is how British capitalism is going to forge ahead. It's also nothing to do with 'growing up', in fact it's utterly childish.

 

We recruit really good staff by finding out what they are good at, not by arsing about.

 

Absolutely spot on.....

 

Can you imagine recruting land army girls, factory workers, engineers or fighter pilots during the war based on whether or not they could put a bag on their head and act like prat?

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Yes I would absolutely do it if it was clearly part of some group exercise as part of overall candidate assessment.

 

I have in my past had to do group role play discussions, make models using pasta, play guessing games about people as part of various recruitment.

 

The world of Q&A in a meeting room is changing rapidly. These days is all about observing candidates, watching them interact with others, problem solving, improvisation, reactions to scenarios, logical thinking, willingness to particpate etc... etc...

 

I dont really get the whole "humiliated" and "degrading" nonsense. All seems a bit OTT to me. I dont know what this "student" is planning after their A levels but if they want a job in the world of white collar or indeed any sort of larger professional organisation they had better grow up fast, because there will be lot more of that to come.

 

Your average annual team building day is filled with crap like that let alone the sort of things prospective candidates are expected to do on corporate assessment days, work placements or even client networking events.

 

He cant have been that humiliated considering he named himself in the National Press and got his mummy to give a comment sticking up for him. Im sure that will really help hide his embarrasment :rolleyes:

 

Seems more like an attention seeker to me with mummy just fuelling the fire.

 

Maybe i'm just of completely different age and temper but I can guarantee if I went running home to mummy all "humiliated" because of an ice breaker exercise in a job assessment she wouldn't have got my back when I cried to the press.

 

Apparently someone high up at the shoe company concerned upon hearing what had happened said:

'We are appalled that this ice breaker was used and do not condone it.'

 

But Schuh aren't the only company guilty of humiliating people seeking work, the electrical shop Currys were also caught out when at one of their interviews asked candidates to dance to a song in front of other candidates.

I'm glad that people go running 'crying' to the press. Degrading treatment shouldn't be tolerated - even for managers offering jobs to people desperate for work.

Edited by Mister M

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Seems like managers taking the recruitment process into their own hands, coming up with stuff just for a laugh.

 

Just like teasing a hungry animal with food, they have all the power and the job candidates are pressurised into doing whatever is asked.

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The quality of the recruitment process goes hand in hand with the type of job on offer.

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