Ha! Thank you very much for weaving a personality test result into your comment. Google says that type is "Mediator", hence the making peace. Hence, I suddenly realize this whole essay makes even more sense when I remember that Enneagram (type 8) says I'm a challenger...
I think you were shadowing me during my career, Emily, because your descriptions of inane work culture are spot on. I was almost not hired for what turned out to be my favorite job because the VP of the department said my Myers-Briggs results matched someone's who didn't "fit well" into the organization. Thankfully my boss could out-argue him, and I was hired. So glad to have left all of that behind!
What a "poster child moment" for this article! Thanks for sharing it, Donna. The stock some companies/some leaders put in these assessments is really something, isn't it?! So glad you had a boss who recognized what he/she was getting in you, and it ended happily.
Guess I'm in the minority here, but I LOVE personality assessments like you love shoes.
My guess is you may be an Enneagram 7 like me, due to your comments about liking non-boring things and being motivated by making everything fun...Which explains why I love your writing and it resonates with me.
Or maybe you're not. In which case, I still think you're awesome and I still love personality assessments.
I personally find them quite helpful in understanding others and myself better, which increases empathy and compassion for both, IMHO.
But I've never worked a corporate job and never been forced to take them, so that might make a difference (although everything you described above sounded like a "best day ever!" to me, so 🤷🏻).
This is so fun to know about you! My last corporate personality assessment says I'm actually an 8 (Challenger) but I can't remember which wing I am—sounds like probably a 7! I'm laughing anew about your comment about everything I described sounding like your best day ever...you might totally love corporate and that's not a bad thing!
I'm glad you can see past my loathing (put strongly for effect ;-)) of corporate personality assessments and still appreciate my writing!
Most of these tests are the equivalent of corporate Cosmo quizzes, especially the MBTI. The only one that has any research to support it is the Five Factor Model/NEO-PI-R. See this article for a brief overview: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6732674/
Thanks for the comment, Martha. I got a laugh out of the comparison to Cosmo quizzes. Apt! That's interesting to know about the Five Factor Model one, thanks for sharing that.
Good piece but, hey, management implies managers, and them folks have to do something to prove they're worth their paychecks (which usually they aren't).
I've never been in a situation where someone has paid me to go on a team bonding exercise where these tests are taken and revered. I can say that I've taken a few of them out of curiosity/a desire to figure out what the hell to do in life and on that account they have all been basically useless.
For fun, I went back and looked up my StengthsFinder results. My top five traits are Deliberative, Adaptability, Context, Strategic, and Analytical. Information I'm unsure what to do with, possibly because in the same email they encouraged me to download the app to "take your strengths with you" and I never did that so I guess I just left them behind in my 2017 inbox.
Yeah, they really don't deliver on that one basic promise that they can tell you EXACTLY what work you're suited for. Out there somewhere is a really sharp manager who could tell you exactly what you're supposed to do with your 5 dazzling strengths. I'm truly sure they are dazzling/you are dazzling, but I'm also like, "what do those actually mean in human terms??"
I'd say you're doing remarkably well in life considering your strengths got left behind 8 years ago!
1. I am in 5th grade, and my report card fails me on “Shows interest in reading.” I have never stopped laughing at that. I was, am, and always will be a voracious reader. But I am an introvert who got distracted in a classroom, but dove into a book the moment I got home. Even my mother looked at the report card and laughed.
2. Early in my corporate career I took a personality test. Talking with a manager afterwards, he looks at my answers and says, “so you probably don’t like to walk much. Like if I suggested we cross the street to the other office, you’d prefer to drive.”
Native New Yorker here. I walk every day of my life, typically 1-3 miles a day. For fun. I have zero idea how that test got that result, but early on I caught on to the scam of it all.
Thanks a bunch for sharing these stories, Nick. I especially appreciated them as a voracious reader and walker myself.
Those are hilarious, but also, what if you had believed the dumb things?! Some people seem to live and breathe by what a test says they are, and I'm like "Nope! You get to be the expert on you."
I have always had a strong sense of self. You cannot gaslight me. I know my strengths and weaknesses. If you praise me too much, I let it slide off me as not deserved. If you criticize me too much, I let it slide off me as not deserved.
And THIS is what I wish for every single person. What a gift to have either been born with or had instilled in you. I'm going to remember what you wrote about letting both excess praise and criticism slide off as not deserved.
As an enneagram type 9, I’m really trying to make peace with personality tests.
Ha! Thank you very much for weaving a personality test result into your comment. Google says that type is "Mediator", hence the making peace. Hence, I suddenly realize this whole essay makes even more sense when I remember that Enneagram (type 8) says I'm a challenger...
I think you were shadowing me during my career, Emily, because your descriptions of inane work culture are spot on. I was almost not hired for what turned out to be my favorite job because the VP of the department said my Myers-Briggs results matched someone's who didn't "fit well" into the organization. Thankfully my boss could out-argue him, and I was hired. So glad to have left all of that behind!
What a "poster child moment" for this article! Thanks for sharing it, Donna. The stock some companies/some leaders put in these assessments is really something, isn't it?! So glad you had a boss who recognized what he/she was getting in you, and it ended happily.
Guess I'm in the minority here, but I LOVE personality assessments like you love shoes.
My guess is you may be an Enneagram 7 like me, due to your comments about liking non-boring things and being motivated by making everything fun...Which explains why I love your writing and it resonates with me.
Or maybe you're not. In which case, I still think you're awesome and I still love personality assessments.
I personally find them quite helpful in understanding others and myself better, which increases empathy and compassion for both, IMHO.
But I've never worked a corporate job and never been forced to take them, so that might make a difference (although everything you described above sounded like a "best day ever!" to me, so 🤷🏻).
This is so fun to know about you! My last corporate personality assessment says I'm actually an 8 (Challenger) but I can't remember which wing I am—sounds like probably a 7! I'm laughing anew about your comment about everything I described sounding like your best day ever...you might totally love corporate and that's not a bad thing!
I'm glad you can see past my loathing (put strongly for effect ;-)) of corporate personality assessments and still appreciate my writing!
Most of these tests are the equivalent of corporate Cosmo quizzes, especially the MBTI. The only one that has any research to support it is the Five Factor Model/NEO-PI-R. See this article for a brief overview: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6732674/
Thanks for the comment, Martha. I got a laugh out of the comparison to Cosmo quizzes. Apt! That's interesting to know about the Five Factor Model one, thanks for sharing that.
Sheesh, not even one "therefore"?
Good piece but, hey, management implies managers, and them folks have to do something to prove they're worth their paychecks (which usually they aren't).
Ha! "Therefore" was not a staple of my corporate times. Was/is it of yours?
As much as I've genuinely liked most of my individual managers, it turns out I don't care for the HR-ized culture of "management"
Did a lot of technical and scientific writing, therefore used a lot of "therefores".
I've never been in a situation where someone has paid me to go on a team bonding exercise where these tests are taken and revered. I can say that I've taken a few of them out of curiosity/a desire to figure out what the hell to do in life and on that account they have all been basically useless.
For fun, I went back and looked up my StengthsFinder results. My top five traits are Deliberative, Adaptability, Context, Strategic, and Analytical. Information I'm unsure what to do with, possibly because in the same email they encouraged me to download the app to "take your strengths with you" and I never did that so I guess I just left them behind in my 2017 inbox.
Yeah, they really don't deliver on that one basic promise that they can tell you EXACTLY what work you're suited for. Out there somewhere is a really sharp manager who could tell you exactly what you're supposed to do with your 5 dazzling strengths. I'm truly sure they are dazzling/you are dazzling, but I'm also like, "what do those actually mean in human terms??"
I'd say you're doing remarkably well in life considering your strengths got left behind 8 years ago!
Two test memories:
1. I am in 5th grade, and my report card fails me on “Shows interest in reading.” I have never stopped laughing at that. I was, am, and always will be a voracious reader. But I am an introvert who got distracted in a classroom, but dove into a book the moment I got home. Even my mother looked at the report card and laughed.
2. Early in my corporate career I took a personality test. Talking with a manager afterwards, he looks at my answers and says, “so you probably don’t like to walk much. Like if I suggested we cross the street to the other office, you’d prefer to drive.”
Native New Yorker here. I walk every day of my life, typically 1-3 miles a day. For fun. I have zero idea how that test got that result, but early on I caught on to the scam of it all.
Thanks a bunch for sharing these stories, Nick. I especially appreciated them as a voracious reader and walker myself.
Those are hilarious, but also, what if you had believed the dumb things?! Some people seem to live and breathe by what a test says they are, and I'm like "Nope! You get to be the expert on you."
I have always had a strong sense of self. You cannot gaslight me. I know my strengths and weaknesses. If you praise me too much, I let it slide off me as not deserved. If you criticize me too much, I let it slide off me as not deserved.
And THIS is what I wish for every single person. What a gift to have either been born with or had instilled in you. I'm going to remember what you wrote about letting both excess praise and criticism slide off as not deserved.
Ha, the hence thing would drive me CRAZY. Sounds like the perfect fodder for a satirical piece!