THE  APPLICANT’S  POINT  OF  VIEW  363
last  will  be  interviewed  first.  This  may  seem  like  a  very
trival  matter,  but  it  is  really  one  of  the  utmost  importance
to  the  applicant;  for  a  late  comer  who  gets  ahead  of  him
may  receive  the  very  job  which  he  himself  might  have  received. ­
  To  be  compelled  to  lose  an  opportunity  for  work  in
this  way  can  not  but  strike  him  as  being  essentially  unfair.
Even  when  a  candidate  who  has  suffered  such  an  incident ­
  does  receive  a  job,  he  does  not  forget  the  bit  of  unfairness ­
  which  accompanied  it.  In  fact,  the  degree  of  impartiality ­
  and  fairness  which  an  employment  office  exercises  in  the
selection  of  its  workers  may  be  symbolical  to  the  applicant ­
  of  the  character  of  the  entire  organization,  and  may
color  all  his  subsequent  ideas  of  that  organization.  It
therefore  behooves  the  employment  office  to  be  impartial
in  its  dealings  even  in  a  matter  apparently  so  trivial  as
taking  care  to  interview  applicants  in  their  proper  order.
In  some  places  applicants  are  given  numbered  slips  as
they  enter  the  employment  office  so  that  their  sequence
may  be  more  carefully  observed.  A  simple  measure  like
this,  particularly  in  places  where  the  daily  number  of
applicants  is  large,  is  a  very  genuine  recognition  and  acknowledgment ­
  of  the  applicant’s  point  of  view.
A  second  fundamental  characteristic  of  all  applicants
is  their  self-esteem.  Any  attempt  to  adopt  the  applicant’s
point  of  view  must  reckon  with  this  force.  From  the
most  superior  to  the  most  ordinary  candidate,  self-esteem
is  a  pivot  point  around  which  many  actions  and  attitudes
revolve.  To  show  how  this  force  may  come  into  play
during  the  course  of  employment  interviews,  we  may  take,
as  an  illustration,  the  adequacy  of  the  service.  Some
employment  offices  are  almost  always  empty  and  all  newcomers ­
  are  disposed  of  with  the  utmost  dispatch.  Other
offices  are  always  crowded  with  applicants,  and  it  fre-