Jobs and tailoring
An unveiling
The conditions of society are such that even software crackers and reality crackers and Fravias might eventually have to apply for a job. If you have made a sufficiently convincing written application you might end up with an invitation for an interview and further evaluations.
Every newbie is anxious before going to the first interview. Feels like an exam, only that there is no formal education for it. A swift Web search might be helpful, though.
Some
tips may be found here
Some employers are genuinely generous, stimulating and receptive. They focus
on the work to be done.They take pride in doing good work themselves. They
collect around them people they believe they personally can collaborate with and
who can collaborate with those already there.
Other employers seem more detached from the production process - I believe
because they have a production-irrelevant education (like law or economy) and
seem more preoccupied with money and status - and control, slave mastering if
you like - than with production. They introduce bureaucracy of the silliest
kind, demanding that those in the production units use their precious time for
making reports instead of working. (You can read it every day in the Dilbert
cartoons find the reference yourself)
You can see these in interviews in the business pages of newspapers or
elsewhere where hot air is blown. In my experience they use a lot words like
"leadership", "visions", "teamwork"
"rational" - well, you know. I do not think very highly of these
people, so I think most of them believe their own words. But they are also
cowards, by using the parrot strategy of reproducing the current and fashionable
rhethoric so as not to offend their superiors and the shareholders.
These "leaders" are sometimes in the market for employing new
people, but do not really know what kind of people they need, and THEIR bosses
may have so strict punishment systems for failure that they do not dare even to
make their own independent decisions about which persons to employ in their own
department. Instead, they hire a recruitment firm; a well-reputed one. (I will
say something of that later) so the blame for a misplacement can be put on
somebody outside the organization.
(A few words about the terminology of failure: In my terminology failure is a
disaster of some kind, or the chronic inability to have the work done. I think
these firms have another definition of a failed employment. Employing a person
who opposes them when they are wrong, will be considered a misplacement.)
Whatever the reason, there has become a market for dedicated personnel
recruitment firms, either by outsourcing of the entire selection of personnel,
or (for the really big companies) to have their own internal recruitment firms,
using the same methods. If you apply for a job with one of these firms you may
be in for a surprise or not, depending on your level of cynicism.
Recruitment firms
I hope I have supplied enough material below for the readers to judge for
themselves whether these firms have a useful product, and whether the
renumeration is in proportion to the value they provide.
Every Fravian will know that financial success is more a result of successful
marketing than of the qualities of a product. Even useless or superfluous
products may become a financial success. (Microsoft Powerpoint is aspiring to be
my favourite product for the time being: the tool for marketing of useless
products, full of visual frills. How about a selective PP macrovirus that leaves
unharmed Word, Access and Excel which may be buggy and overbloated, but actually
are tools for quite some useful work?). Marketing in my opinion, is a way of
lying. Even if every word is true, the less favourable sides are usually omitted
or de-emphasized so that the full picture is distorted. Twisted. If this is done
deliberately, it is lying - which is not nice.
But then for the crack.
Have you heard the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about the vain
emperor? (The Emperor's New Clothes"
You
may fetch the text here if you like
Synopsis: The Emperor was buying a new suit of clothes from some
criminals who posed as tailors. The criminals had told him that the suit could
be seen by everybody, except those who were stupid or who were incompetent for
their positions. They made him pay and ran a number of trying sessions to
document the progress of the work. But the entire suit was virtual. Of course he
noticed, but he did not dare to say anything, for fear of being exposed (:-) as
incompetent or stupid. To know more of the suit he called in various presumably
competent and wise persons for a second opinion. None of his servants or cabinet
members dared to tell him that they saw nothing, so they were full of praise of
the new suit, and the Emperor memorized their descriptions to be able to retell
later what he was wearing. When he wanted to show his new dress to the people,
he went along stark naked. Everybody saw the nakedness, but nobody dared to
speak for fear of showing themselves as stupid or incompetent, and the joke was
exposed, literally spoken, only when a child, who had nothing to loseb, cried:
The Emperor has no clothes on! First the child was only quoted cautiously by
those surrounding, but then everybody adopted the idea and cried it out loud.
The recruitment people are making a virtual suit that nobody dares to expose.
"Personality testing" of the applicants is one of their tools,
including IQ testing , but even worse tests may apply, for example graphology -
analysis of your handwriting for personality traits.
The search below may give you an idea of this racket.
This
Excite search may give you an idea of this racket.
Most of these firms are rather good at covering their tracks (or lazy). But
one firm stands out with an informative Web page.
Mercuri
Urval
If you do a little research in this page (I have
copied it here for your convenience), I think you can feel the smell.
Please note that
this is an unsubstantiated belief, and the glaring absence of any
definition of "personality".
Isn't it lovely what these
people can do? Most other firms
boast that they try to keep up to date with research and development. Not
this firm. They stick to the religious way: What once was, will be, and
never shall change - for ever and ever. Amen
It
consists of the following stages; job and demand analysis; recruitment;
administration of candidate applications; analysis of candidate
applications; the preliminary interview; in-depth assessment of the
candidate; 3. Administration of Candidate Applications 4. Analysis of Candidate Applications 5. Preliminary Interview 6. In-Depth Assessment As you can see, most of
the work is pure secretarial work, and work leaning heavily on the
knowhow of the client (meagre as it may be). I would like to focus on
the in-depth assessment. This speed and accuracy test - I should not
swear, so I will not, .... I assure you by my anonymous honour and my
priesthood: This test is a classical IQ test. The IQ test was designed
long ago (in the nineteen-twenties perhaps) to identify the less gifted
among us so that they could receive special teaching and become useful
citizens even thought the odds were against it. And then you, a person
with a higher education, will spend an hour with tasks like deciding
whether a rectangle or a cicle fits best with a pentagon and a square,
and will have to use half an hour to write your CV on a form - a task
that takes any literate person about 5 minutes. Then you will spend two
hours with someone who has a background in social sciences or what not,
who will use this interview to assess your personality and decide about
your fitness for the job with Micro$oft or Coca-Cola or the Olympic
Committee of Lillehammer (shudder).
7.
Reference Checking 8. Decision Reporting Here the tale ends. The slave masters have taken over, and the poor
candidate is employed. The result is evaluated by the consultant and
those who hired the consultants. Mercuri Urval boasts that they are
successful in more than 95 percent of cases. Surprising that there are
any unsuccessful employments at all under these conditions.
Reminds me of elections under Communism, in which there was 99
percent participation, and 99+ percent voted for the Communist party. If
you opposed this, you were out. It also reminds me of the general
satisfaction with IBM computers long time ago, or with today's Microsoft
Office and Windows 98. If you used lots of money on the rubbish, you
will never admit that the consultants were stupid and incompetent or the
software overbloated and buggy. And if you do, your bosses will hang
you.
I cannot remember seeing the word "ethics" on any of the Fravian
pages, but I admit there are quite strong elements of old-fashioned
ethics as well. Anyway, I miss the word. Perhaps there is a shyness from
these left-wing people of using such an old-fashioned right-wing word.
But I think our quest, our mission, as reality crackers and Fravias,
right-wing or left-wing, religious or atheists or mammonical, is the
reintroduction of ethics into society, in opposition to the greed of
companies and individuals and states and unions; European ones and
others. I think job selection is a useful illustration because it
concerns all of us.
But I have more. The link below is to the Online Journal of Ethics.
These people are friends, so I give you only the link to their page.
Graphology
article from the Online Journal of Ethics
The author analyzes
graphology from an ethical point of view, and far better than I can ever
do. To summarize quite briefly: Your personality is your private domain.
No employer has the right to know your personality, only your ability to
do the work and function socially so as not to disturb the others -
which is what he pays for.
Whatever your academic merits, and whatever you have
accomplished: the job selection people offer you the standard procedure
- for idiots and professors, for bosses and errand boys. alike. But what
they really do, if you are educated enough to understand what they are
into, is measuring your ability and willingness to accept humiliation
and harrassment.
If you show yourself so meek that you go through the whole procedure
without shouting, chances are high that you have the slave mentality
that the employer wants from you. If you are not; if you are an
unyielding and independent person - a homogenous non compromising
reality cracker - you will not accept these conditions.
Economic necessity may force you, but an employer using such methods
does not really deserve you among their employees, and it should not be
for long.
If you are satisfied with an employer that uses such methods, then
you will not think long about my warnings. You will probably start
cramming for those IQ tests. To the others I say: Now you have been
warned. If you have the choice: Find another employer. But even if you
manage to keep a straight face and "succeed" in your
application, you may find a nice and competent employer next time.
Good luck!
As a priest, I should say: Thou shalt not hate. Leave them alone.
Mind your own business. And I have asked myself quite a number of times:
What harm do these firms do?
First of all: They are spreading falsehood. "A speed and
accuracy test": It is an outright lie. The personality testing is
nonexistent, and if it were true, it would be unethical because it is a
very severe invasion of the privacy of the job applicant. They are
charlatans, with a completely bogus product, and they live comfortably
on the fact that there is no child around to tell the world that their
product is nonexistent. But they reinforce the general accept in the
society for bogus solutions, for swindle and lies.
Fravia says: Damage Micro$oft. I would say: Add Mercuri Urval to your
list. Damage Micro$oft AND Mercuri Urval. Blow them off the surface of
the earth.
The Priest
Mercuri Urval is an international recruitment,
selection and human resource utilisation consultancy; specialising in the
evaluation of an individual's personality. Mercuri Urval conducts this
evaluation in relation to a specific job, and the client company's profile.
Two key beliefs are imperative to our development:
Mercuri Urval is an
international company. Since our inception, approximately 30 years
ago, Mercuri Urval has established more than 70 offices throughout 17
countries. Our selection as human resource consultants for both the
Winter Olympics in Norway, and the Eurotunnel project between England and
France, has strengthened and enhanced our reputation as a company that
ensures results.
Mercuri Urval works with recruitment, selection and effectual resources
utilisation.
Recruitment and selection are undoubtedly the area for which we are best
known. We assist in filling positions for both the public and
private sectors; with an emphasis on service, and providing the best match
between client and employee.
Within the effectual resources utilisation area, Mercuri Urval performs
assessments for both small and large projects. In some projects the
focus is primarily upon the relationship between the human resources of a
company, and the market demands facing it. With other projects, the
emphasis is on the individual employee and manager; with a focus of
improving the effectiveness of the individual in their position.
In Mercuri Urval's approach, the relationship between the individual and
their job is the fundamental building block for every organisation. The
basic issue of organisational performance lies in continually fitting
the abilities and motivation of people to properly defined jobs.
The Mercuri Urval Recruitment And Selection Process
Company Analysis
A thorough analysis of our client's company is essential. Once
performed, this analysis enables Mercuri Urval to obtain an understanding
of the company's image and environment, and the standards and values of
the company's culture.
Recruitment And Selection
Procedure
Mercuri Urval's recruitment and selection procedure is methodical and
unchanging.
reference checking; decision reporting; development reporting; and last
but not least, the follow-up. Below you will find an explanation of
each of the stages.
1. Job and Demand Analysis
We place considerable importance on the analysis of the formal demands
of the position and the personality demands of the client.
2. Recruitment
This looks nice, doesn't it? The firm
does the choosing, the employer employs after spending a huge amount of
money for the services of this firm.
We carry out the recruitment of candidates through an agreed advertising
campaign. Mercuri Urval provides clients with the choice of
advertising through print medium, Internet advertising, or both.
Mercuri Urval believes the candidate is entitled to be informed when
their application is received. With this in mind, all candidates
are sent a confirmation within 24 hours of receipt of their application.
Mercuri Urval then analyses all applications based on the formal
requirements for the position, based on the findings from the "Job
and Demand Analysis".
Next we invite selected candidates to a preliminary interview at our
premises. This interview has a duration of approximately one hour.
Unique to Mercuri Urval, and imperative to the successful placement of a
candidate, is the in-depth assessment of candidates. Candidates
will spend approximately four hours in our office completing the
following; a personal information questionnaire, speed and accuracy
tests, and a personality assessment. The candidate will then have
an in-depth interview with the consultant, which takes approximately two
hours. The candidate will then receive extensive feedback from the
consultant.
Mercuri Urval will check a minimum of three references from past
employers.
We provide our client with a clear decision as to the suitability of a
candidate for the position.
9. Development Reporting
We provide the successful candidate with information enabling their
successful, and timely, introduction to the company. This
information also assists with their integration into the company.
10. Follow-Up
Follow up, with both the employer and the employee, at 3, 6, 12 and 24
month intervals, enables the evaluation of the business results of the
employee.