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?

Plenty of studies disagree with that MB claim.

@MigsandTiggs

Whether or not Myers Briggs has any validity or not is controversial. The company has certainly tried to improve it, and some academics think it has validity - and others absolutely don’t

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/

I’m hoping your user name doesn’t indicate that you are involved with it (I’m sure you aren’t - just flagging in case.)

I've done both Myers Briggs and insights in corporate environments. Both very useful in understanding myself and how I relate to others and also how to get the best out of my team.

The Myers Briggs definition of introvert and extrovert has always stuck with me. I'm fairly quiet and would describe myself as an introvert but it's about where you get your energy from - being with others or by being alone. I realised I'm actually an extrovert.

If I were you OP I'd try and see it as an opportunity. You might find it useful.

.. I meant to link to one of these

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/myers-briggs-type-indicator-does-not-matter/3635592002/
eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/myers-briggs-type-indicator-does-not-matter/3635592002/

www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
www.vox.com/platform/amp/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless

defence of MBTI
For reference, OP.

cross post.

MBTI evangelists are drawn to these threads like flies to shit. I swear there's some sort of klaxon goes out.

Regardless of any accuracy or validity claims, it is intrusive and overreaching for workplaces to make employees feel they should take personality tests for work. It's an invasion of privacy and could disadvantage perfectly good employees.

@Luredbyapomegranate (Persephone, love your user name btw!)
I'm not associated with MB but used to be a qualified practitioner for a psychometric test helping non-engaging young people understand their relationship with authority etc. These test results were always confidential.

In my first job on leaving uni, the HR manager (my boss) asked me to do a 16PF test as she was thinking of introducing it as a management tool. I declined on the grounds that I felt it was based on research conducted on people in a different culture from mine, so not convinced about relevance in my case.😀

I've found usefulness where results can be used to introduce discussions on self awareness and behaviour in certain settings. "Fun" quizzes eg Which animal are you? aren't bad icebreakers, but they are just that - for fun.

I'm an academic. I wouldn't touch mbti with a bargepole. But there are trait measures that have decades of rigourous research showing their validity.

I fucking hate them. Used by lazy managers to try and team build. I'm an extravert so it's not just introverts that dislike doing this. I am a grown up and I know what I am like and how I like to work. I can clearly articulate this to my colleagues but managers who lack intellectual curiosity love MB - so I suppose it's useful for identifying people you don't want to work for. I run a large functional team and have never ever put my staff through this nonsense. May as well ask people what star sign they are and base your work planning on that for all the good it does.

Thus proving exactly why they're best avoided.

I'd say he has a good idea of your personality already from working with you. It could be him trying to be diplomatic in trying to deal with some issues either you or someone else in the team has, and asking everyone to do it is just his way of masking this. I'd be taking some time to think whether it is you that he has the issues with. From some of your responses to this thread (e.g. saying you're stubborn and a PITA) I'd think that there might be some things you would want to reflect on.

No. Myers Briggs is BS and I get a different result every time. It tells you what you want to think of yourself at the time.

They're supposed to be taken no less than 6m apart, so uni will have been too long ago to still be relevant.

They're a load of crap anyway. I've taken a few and have come out at both introvert and domineering, it all depends on what mood I'm in at the time.

@alphapie
And you sound like a nightmare manager. Team spirit is NOT 'kow tow to the management's pseudo scientific fads or else'

In my defence - me saying stubborn and a PITA was how I thought not taking a test could be interpreted. Last time we had a 1-2-1 I got great feedback and I’m on friendly terms with everyone on the team, including him.
I suspect there’s others who won’t be too keen on a personality test either.

In the 80s I worked for an ad agency, a third of the business was search and selection and I was friends with the guy heading it, they staring offering clients the Myers Biggs test as a way of getting them candidates suited to the particular vacancy well that's what they told them in actual fact as my friend fully admitted it was so they could charge them an extra 25%, fast forward a few years later both my friend and I lost our jobs through redundancy, he rang me a few weeks later he had got a job as an HR manager and there was a job going he knew I could do only I had to have an interview (not with him) part of the interview was the MBT, he rang me to say that I wasn't successful as my personality did not fit the job, he then said don't know what you were thinking when you did it Oldsu but you start Monday, I am still with the company only now I am at director level so I know its rubbish

They are largely bollocks, but taken with a pinch of salt can be quite enlightening.

But why would you give the wrong answers, as some are suggesting? You'll still get assigned a type, it's not going to look like a spoilt ballot. And then you'll still have to sit through the sessions listening to all kinds of rubbish being said about you, and having to answer to it.

Re: the post about the test uncovering personality disorders - it won't do that, surely. I've done at least three different kinds of these tests (MBTI, Insights, another one or two I can't remember the name of) and all the personality types are different but equal. There's no bad personality type. The whole point is to encourage you to appreciate the differences, e.g. Doris isn't just being a slowcoach, she's very thorough; blunt Rupert isn't necessarily a twat but wants to get things done right and on time. It shouldn't get too personal; it will be focused on your working style. The questions are dull as dishwater, you're not going to be on the couch with Sigmund Freud.

If your manager is anything like every manager I've ever had, he will immediately forget what personality type you are. He will either be captivated by his own result, or disappointed in it. Either way, the novelty will wear off before he's even looked at yours.

No 🤔

A quiz from the Internet? No. However if it is a licensed test such as TMSDI or Myers Briggs etc then I think you'd be foolish to refuse. While I have no time for MB personally, some of the other tests can help teams work together by identifying styles and recognising strengths.

It’s tricky because the manager will likely hear this as you saying you don’t trust how the manager will use the results. Which based on the comments above seems fair. Do you know how they plan to use it?

Could you ask for a different test to be used, one which is less intrusive and which celebrates the diversity of personality types in the team? Or failing that, take control of the test analysis by claiming the introvert label with pride and be prepared to come back at them with all the brilliant things introverts add to teams?

To give a different perspective, I always thought that whilst the tests themselves are not far off astrology in their ability to say anything objective about personality, what they can do is facilitate a conversation about preferences and learning styles and that sort of thing.

If you are able to look at it less as a judgement and more as a sort of inkblot test and prompt, you might find some use in it, particularly if there is anything about your own preferences that you would like to communicate to your manager.

This is exactly why the person providing feedback on it has to be trained. Trained to interpret the test and trained to discuss the findings.

This.