Aibu to say I don’t want to take a personality test at work

[PenelopeWhipStop]

My manager has told me he intends to have us all take a personality test as part of our 1-2-1 meetings. I queried whether this was an organisational thing or his own personal decision (it’s his idea). It’s to help determine if we’re introverts or extroverts, how we learn, possible career paths.

I already know I’m an introvert! Was I being unreasonable to tell him I’m not keen for n his idea?

Unless he's bringing in a qualified occupational psychologist with accreditation in administering psychometric testing, AND he has a solid evidence base for the type of test he wants you to take and how it is relevant and useful for you and your workplace AND he has a solid plan on how he is going to store, interpret and act upon the results, while maintaining your confidentiality and respecting ethical guidelines and GDPR laws, AND has the knowledge and qualifications to do that kind of interpretation and implementation, then he has no business asking you to take a personality test at all.

If all of the above was covered, it might be an interesting exercise, but under ethical guidelines for psychological research in the UK it would be exceptionally unethical to try and compel you to do the test.

So he can tick as many boxes as he likes, you are still well within your rights to (politely and professionally) tell him to do one. As a psychologist I would never want anyone in my study who felt they had no choice, as well as being plain wrong to try and make someone participate, it would also make a mess of the data. Which defeats the object of the test in the first place.

I find the ones used at my work reasonably helpful. Obviously they can't be completely accurate. And these things aren't perfect BUT

I did get some helpful points in understanding how my own preferred approach may come over to people with the opposite style. And vice versa.

That said - if you don't want to, don't do it.

YANBU

When I did psychology at uni (not that long ago) I remember what was said about these kid of assessments. basically = something like not worth the paper/commuter page they are written on.
It shouldn't be obligatory

ask him if he believes in Star signs, they have the same accuracy

Gosh, very surprised to read such negativity about these tests.

I've done them several times for work, different ones, and all licensed ones.

Personally I've found them really useful both in terms of understanding a bit more about my own strengths and weaknesses (and I was fairly self aware already) but also about how to work more effectively with my colleagues - particularly those with opposite personality types. I've found it's made me more conscious about how to present information in a way that they prefer.

None of these tests state anything about your suitability for a particular role, and you can't get a 'bad' result, they don't work like that.

Anyway each to their own, but personally I wouldn't be very impressed by an employee refusing to participate and it would certainly change my perception of them.

I like personality tests. The big 5, MB, ENneagram!

But ive never been forced to share results.

I can imagine how demoralising it was to learn that everybody at the top was extrovert:-/

The tests can reveal a lot and weaknesses were all things id had to work on. But they don't measure things like resilience, honesty, self-promotion, security/insecurity, motivation, boundaries reactivity...

But i don't think that that totally discredits the tests but i wouldn't want to be ordered to do one by employer.

Doing the test for possible benefits to oneself? Fine. The results beging shared with all your colleagues? Absolutely not fine. And a hill that I'd definitely die on.

That's a bit of a generalisation. Some tests are highly valid and reliable. Others are shite.

My ex boss had us all do this, it was a load of rubbish and he was a control freak that thought we were all machines. I don't think it's unreasonable of you, but my experience has probably made me bias!

But why, why don't you want to work in an environment where your colleagues know how to get the best out of you, and you them?

Most of these highlight communication preferences, ways of understanding, for example I am a logical thinker so for anyone to get me to sign off on a project they know they need to hit me with facts, ROI and deliverables, whereas my director is a visionary, so when I then pass these projects onto him I need to push the vision.

Because they have no scientific validity and pigeonhole employees based on the way they answered questions on one particular day.

Also those tests ask a lot of very personal questions, and my colleagues do not get to see my results and try to work out what my answers and my internal thoughts and emotions are.

I can very easily tell people what I colleagues what I need from them, should they care to ask. And one of those things is privacy.

I can very easily tell colleagues what I need from them, should they care to ask. And one of those things is privacy.

Edited. Dammit.

@saraclara gosh you sound a total bore. Glad I've never had the displeasure of working with anyone so uptight in the workplace before.

I'd look very dimly on any of my team who refused to undertake their sessions for this and it would definitely impact progression as it's just not a team focused attitude

I do work in such an environment. But we haven't needed personality tests to know those things about each other.

This sort of thing is normally done by HR people who understand privacy and who use the results appropriately.

I would be very concerned about privacy and use of any results of a test administered by someone with a BA in business administration or whatever the manager studied.

I did MB (analysed by a licensed, accredited person). It helped me understand why I clashed so much with a particular team member, by understanding myself better and realising where she would answer the complete opposite from me.
Maybe you already have that insight?

I feel quite sorry for the managers here. Sometimes they can’t do right for doing wrong. Surely on the whole they are just trying to help teams work well together, or manage an individual in the best possible way. They are not superhuman or mind readers, they are just doing the best they can. But we hold them to an impossibly high standard.

@PenelopeWhipStop unsuitability fornyour role is not what those tests are designed to uncover.

But if I were you I'd look up impostor syndrome.

This in spades. And I say this as someone who scored 90% introvert 😂

Agree 100% with @katmarie.

We did one at work and it was useful and interesting. Everyone in my team went into it fairly enthusiastically and got quite a lot out of it. They were fairly accurate, nothing like a starsign or BuzzFeed quiz

I found it quite useful at the time as my manager and I were polar opposites and struggled to 'get' one another's styles. Although we knew were different it was useful to have it spelled out to ourselves and each other in a way that meant we could figure out how to communicate a bit more effectively.

I'm surprised to see such a strong negative response to them on here.

Eh. A lot of people bash them, but the CEO at my last place organised a communications training day around a test like this, and the training was 100% up front about the limitations of the assessments. And they weren't namby-pamby barnum statements either, they were pretty specific.

They really helped open up discussions about working styles, playing to strengths, and understanding what did or didn't make someone comfortable at work. As a manager myself, I used the results not to do anything wanky like "take someone out of their comfort zone" - I used it to help make a comfort zone at work where they could do their best.

Find out how he scored and answer accordingly. It will wreck his head for years to come.