Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 604 posts

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#461

Post by Ekaros »

ALittleLight wrote: post #325
krisoft wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The taxi driver is going to text or email HR or the hiring manager or someone? That would be indeed implausible. But not every transaction happens between undeferentiated cogs. A specific person organises the interview logistics from the company. Let’s call him Joe. When they agree with a candidate on an interview date Joe picks up the phone and calls the hotel to book a room. After that Joe calls George the truste…

Since you asked, I find a few things implausible about your story. First, taxi drivers typically work with dispatchers. They aren't scheduling their own calls or schedules - because they are busy driving. Second, in the world of "decades ago" we are pre-smartphone. How, exactly, are you going to call up the taxi driver for a chat? And don't you think the taxi driver is going to notice that he has to take a call from…

Here we are not just talking about any taxi service. But someone who is known and paid to go to airport pick certain people up probably showing a sign or something to indicate to candidate that they are there for them. Includes things like being compensated for any wait time for delays likely. Drop them off at hotel. Go pick from hotel again and then likely deliver to right place in office and even give instructions where to go there.

Perfectly sensible service to out-source and something that you want to work each time or have responsibility to arrange someone else to do same thing.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#462

Post by Fezzik »

ALittleLight wrote: post #209
eej71 wrote: post #67

Decades ago, in the days before uber, my employer would fly in candidates from college campuses as part of an onsite interview. The candidate would fly in the night before and we relied on a taxi service to bring the candidate to the hotel. Then in the morning the same service would bring them to the onsite and of course bring them back to the airport at the end. It was a whole curated process. Little did the candida…

I have seen several stories like this - the janitor, or secretary, or whoever is actually a trusted individual who is the true judge of character. To me, it seems implausible, more of a "feel good" story, but it also seems ill advised. Does the driver know he's part of the loop? Does the driver attend the debrief? Does the driver distinguish between great, normal, sub-normal, and bad social skills? What portion of je…

Somewhat related to the anecdote you’re skeptical of: I was a law clerk for multiple years for a presiding judge and if you were a wise attorney rule #1 was be kind to the administrative staff at the courthouse - judges would find out if you were rude and while no-one was ever unethical, in my opinion, arrogant attorneys were definitely grilled more than polite ones. Kindness gets you a long way. And if you were a jerk to my secretary I was definitely not putting in the extra effort to dig through the two-foot stack of motions we got everyday to fast track your motion to postpone to the presiding judge. It’s not my fault you filed it at the 11th hour.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#463

Post by DarylZero »

apocolyps6 wrote: post #367
DarylZero wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it convoluted? Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe. Is that complicated or unrealistic? This story is supposedly about an actual taxi driver, not a plant from HR. It's absurd to trust this person like this.

The driver was a specific person that the company knew. Maybe they were a secret homophobe or something, but you could say that of all the company's employees with just as high a likelihood. > It's absurd to trust this person like this If your friend told you "man, my last customer was a jerk" you would distrust that?

A secret homophobe? Who said it was a secret? It's just as likely that it wasn't particularly secret.

If a homophobe was working for HR (in 2022) they would hide it, even to the extent of making sure to hire some percentage gays no matter what they thought personally.

> If your friend told you "man, my last customer was a jerk" you would distrust that?

My personal friend? That's the standard we're expecting from a giant corporation's bureaucracy? It just has its personal friends that it trusts.

That kind of thing is just gross, is my point. Maybe it's how everything works, welcome to the real world, etc. But it's nothing to be praised or admired.

The corporation should vet its "personal friends" at least as closely as its official HR personnel. Otherwise they're an unaccountable source of bias in the hiring process.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#464

Post by Ekaros »

lupire wrote: post #351
ALittleLight wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you asked, I find a few things implausible about your story. First, taxi drivers typically work with dispatchers. They aren't scheduling their own calls or schedules - because they are busy driving. Second, in the world of "decades ago" we are pre-smartphone. How, exactly, are you going to call up the taxi driver for a chat? And don't you think the taxi driver is going to notice that he has to take a call from…

Not everyone knows that a private "black car" "car service", which is often a single car and driver, is commonly not called a "taxi".

I just group all delivery services under taxis. That is not those that are clearly regular bus services. Be it taxi, Uber, lyft, limousine or black car...

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#465

Post by ALittleLight »

smegsicle wrote: post #409
ALittleLight wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> I'd actually bet that homophobia is more common among immigrant taxi drivers i wonder which of your demographics predisposes you to judge such people in this way?

Violence against homosexuals is pretty common in South and Central America - which is where most of recent American immigrants are from. Here's an example from CNN[1]

"Latin America offers a contradictory narrative: The region has the highest rates of violence against the LGBT community, according to research done by Transgender Europe, a non-governmental organization, but it also has some of the most progressive laws for LGBT equality and protection."

It seems like a pretty intuitive step to me to go from "Highest rate of hate crimes" to "more likely to be homophobic".

1 - https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/26/americas/lgbt-rights-in-the-a...

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#466

Post by DarylZero »

smegsicle wrote: post #365
DarylZero wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it convoluted? Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe. Is that complicated or unrealistic? This story is supposedly about an actual taxi driver, not a plant from HR. It's absurd to trust this person like this.

> actual taxi driver, not a plant from HR sounds like both what do you mean when you say "Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe" ?

It's not both. Either the taxi driver went through the process of being hired as HR personnel for the corporation, or else they didn't.

> what do you mean when you say "Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe" ?

The taxi driver may cause conflict with gay passengers. Or female passengers, or whatever else. Then they would blame their own victim for their reaction. The taxi driver's personal biases and animosities would become a vector for corporate discrimination.

There is a reason that corporate bureaucracies take such care to look out for this kind of thing. If you let ordinary people just go with their gut on things, you end up excluding a lot of people based on stereotypes and bias. It's not some theoretical possibility, but empirical fact.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#467

Post by andylynch »

Melatonic wrote: post #190
hindsightbias wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was told if you interview with the FBI, the interview starts the moment you go through the door. And be careful what you say at the bar.

The FBI has a bar inside their offices?

Probably they are thinking of the cop bar likely around the corner from whichever building the interview happens at.

But in my experience job interviews can also be successfully concluded in similar places on occasion, although perhaps more often started.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#468

Post by lenkite »

eej71 wrote: post #67

Decades ago, in the days before uber, my employer would fly in candidates from college campuses as part of an onsite interview. The candidate would fly in the night before and we relied on a taxi service to bring the candidate to the hotel. Then in the morning the same service would bring them to the onsite and of course bring them back to the airport at the end. It was a whole curated process. Little did the candida…

What happens when people just stay silent and do not engage the driver in conversation ? Does the Driver mark them down as a "bad egg" also ?

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#469

Post by [deleted] »

reificator wrote: post #437
yukinon wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the Parent commenter, but I get the feeling you are taking what he said a little too literally. Those were simply examples of what could be said during the process. Their reply was not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the responses.

My previous comment, perhaps. My original point, however, was to highlight the fact that "They treated me like a human being" was given as the example of a positive interaction. Which is absolutely absurd. And I don't think I'm taking that too literally.

[deleted]

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#470

Post by DarylZero »

DocTomoe wrote: post #441
DarylZero wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it convoluted? Maybe the powerless person is a homophobe. Is that complicated or unrealistic? This story is supposedly about an actual taxi driver, not a plant from HR. It's absurd to trust this person like this.

Even if he was (and he'd be a ridiculous taxi driver if the first thing he did was sharing his political opinions [though that's not unheard of, I've been riding with that kind of service provider]), not immediately going ballistic would be a quality I expect hires to have. No-one needs angry activist mob person joining the team.

Sharing political opinions? He could just be rude to someone who was gay. And then project his own rudeness onto his victim.
Post reply on HN