342 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
When the applicant has been admitted into the waiting 
room reserved for that particular purpose, the next step 
is to take his name and address, and to look up his pre 
vious record with the concern. Whether the applicant 
admits having worked with the company or not, it is still 
advisable to take this step. If the applicant is a former 
employee, and if the industry has kept a faithful and 
systematic record of all its employees, this one step will 
greatly simplify all subsequent steps in the employment 
procedure. If such a record as the individual activity rec 
ord described in Chapters XXII and XXIII has been 
maintained, it will be possible to tell at a glance when and 
where the applicant has previously worked, the kind of 
work he was engaged in, his earnings at that work, how 
these earnings compared with the earnings of his fellow 
workers, his average attendance, the reasons for his leav 
ing, his special qualifications or shortcomings, and finally, 
the foreman’s opinion of him. Any one of these items may 
be sufficient to decide whether or not the applicant shall 
be rehired. The opinion of the foreman is a particularly 
potent factor, for no matter how desirable a man may be 
in certain other respects, if the foreman or supervisor 
has a distinct antipathy or dislike for a worker, it may be 
inexpedient to place that worker under him. To be sure, 
a foreman who manifests such an antipathy too frequently 
in the face of an objective record to the contrary will 
soon draw suspicion upon himself and upon the validity 
of his judgments of human nature. A record of this kind 
works both ways. For the moment, however, while the 
applicant is applying for the return of his old job, this 
record would apply only to him. In addition to a record 
of this kind, it is also possible to make use of the records 
of the physical examination, the psychological examina-