3 6  4

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

quently  happens  that  the  individual  must  wait  hours  and
sometimes  even  days,  before  his  turn  comes.  Now  the
length  of  time  which  an  applicant  is  willing  to  spend  in
.  the  waiting  room  of  an  employment  office  is  roughly  proportionate ­
  to  his  degree  of  self-esteem.  A  man  who  places
a  high  estimate  on  his  value  will  not  spend  as  much  time
in  waiting  as  a  man  who  does  not.  An  expert  electrician,
for  instance,  is  not  likely  to  spend  three  hours  or  half  a
day  simply  waiting  for  an  interview.  He  is  too  well
aware  of  the  fact  that  in  the  same  amount  of  time  he  can
probably  find  a  position  elsewhere.  And  even  when  the
labor  situation  is  such  as  to  enable  employers  to  enforce
long  waits  upon  applicants  the  injury  done  their  self-esteem ­
  will  rebound  sooner  or  later  to  the  disadvantage  of
the  employer.
Another  way  in  which  the  quality  of  self-esteem  manifests ­
  itself  is  in  respect  to  courtesy.  Courtesy  may  be
defined  as  the  active  acknowledgment  of  the  other  man’s
point  of  view.  To  treat  an  applicant  discourteously  is  to
ignore  his  point  of  view  and  to  administer  a  violent  blow
to  his  self-esteem.  There  are  myriad  ways  in  which  courtesy ­
  may  manifest  itself  during  the  course  of  the  employment ­
  process.  From  the  very  arrival  of  the  candidate  at
the  doors  of  the  employment  office  to  the  time  when  his
application  is  rejected  or  accepted,  there  is  opportunity
after  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  considerateness.
The  fact  that  the  applicant  is,  for  the  time  being,  more
or  less  at  the  mercy  of  the  employment  interviewers
sometimes  promotes  in  the  latter  a  tendency  to  be  sharp
in  their  questions  and  abrupt  in  their  replies.  This  has
a  decidedly  bad  effect  upon  applicants,  making  them
either  very  nervous  or  indignant.
Finally,  it  must  be  recognized  that  the  most  funda-