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EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

hardly  likely  to  answer:  “Oh,  the  foreman  was  all
right.  It  was  all  my  fault.”  Obviously  not.  If  an  applicant ­
  is  looking  for  work  elsewhere,  it  is  very  often
because  there  was  a  hitch  in  his  relations  with  his  previous
employers.  But  to  stand  up  for  these  is  to  discredit  himself, ­
  and  as  an  ordinary  human  being,  in  search  of  another
job,  it  is  expecting  too  much  of  the  loyalty  of  any  individual ­
  to  have  him  cast  reflections  upon  himself.  And  as  for
the  item,  poor,  but  thinks  well  of  us,  can  an  applicant  do
anything  but  think  well  of  the  company  with  which  he  is
trying  to  find  work?  Would  any  applicant  be  likely  to
say:  “I  don’t  think  much  of  this  company,  but  I  need  a
job  so  badly  that  I  am  willing  to  take  it  anywhere”?
Questions  of  this  kind  are  obviously  not  worth  asking.
In  questions  of  all  kinds,  the  effect  of  suggestion  cannot
be  overestimated.  The  interviewer  may  ask  his  questions
in  such  a  way  as  really  to  predetermine  the  answer  which
he  shall  receive.  In  the  item  of  sobriety,  for  instance,  the
interviewer  may  look  sternly  at  the  applicant  and  ask,
in  an  almost  threatening  voice:  “Do  you  drink?”  The
inevitable  answer  to  a  question  asked  in  such  a  way  is  a
horrified:  “Oh,  no,  sir!”  There  are  innumerable  ways  of
asking  this  question.  One  might  ask,  following  the  items
mentioned:  “Are  you  a  hard  drinker  or  a  moderate
drinker?”  The  inevitable  answer  to  this  question  will
naturally  be:  “Moderate.”  And  one  would  hardly  expect ­
  an  applicant  to  answer  to  his  detriment  the  question:
“Do  you  get  drunk  often  or  only  once  in  a  while?”  On
the  other  hand,  if  an  interviewer  asks,  with  a  disarming
smile:  “About  how  much  do  you  drink?”  he  may  get  an
answer  somewhere  near  the  truth.  However,  even  this
is  very  uncertain.  Where  an  industry  is  known  to  refuse
all  applicants  who  are  anything  but  total  abstainers,  the