6o

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

This  girl  had  been  laid  off  some  time  before.
Two  girls  who  did  poor  work  in  the  tests  were  hired  with
the  particular  purpose  of  finding  a  negative  proof  of  the
value  of  the  tests.  The  section  head,  who  knew  that  the
tests  were  being  given,  one  day  met  the  young  woman  who
had  given  them  and  said:
“I  thought  that  you  gave  the  tests  to  Miss  ?”
“I  did,”  was  the  reply.
“Well,  she’s  no  good.  She’ll  never  make  an  assembler.”
“I  didn’t  expect  her  to,”  was  the  answer.  This  girl
was  one  of  the  two  who  had  done  poor  work  in  the  tests.
The  other  one  has  already  been  referred  to.
The  number  of  instances  mentioned  above  is  hardly
sufficient  to  establish  with  scientific  certainty  the  value
of  these  tests.  However,  the  practical  success  with  which
they  were  used  insured  the  desirability  of  their  further
use.  The  foreman  in  charge  of  the  assembling  shops
had  been  extremely  interested  in  the  development  and
application  of  the  tests,  and  was  moved  to  write  the  following ­
  letter  expressing  his  opinion  of  the  psychological
examination:
“The  tests  which  you  have  been  giving  applicants  for  assembling ­
  have  proven  beneficial  and  I  would  like  to  see  you  not
only  continue  them,  but  extend  them  to  the  men  applicants.
“We  have  had  only  two  failures  so  far  out  of  twelve  new
girls,  and  the  tests  given  these  girls  showed  that  they  were  slew
to  begin  with.
“One  of  the  difficulties  in  training  piece-workers  is  the  fact
that  they  must  first  be  given  from  two  to  four  weeks’  training.
During  this  time,  the  aim  is  to  train  a  man  in  thoroughness,
and  he  is  therefore  compelled  to  work  slowly  and  carefully.
Consequently,  it  is  impossible  during  this  time  to  tell  whether
the  man  will  be  fast  or  not.