Johnson: Psychology holds back work force

Jacob Johnston

It’s no secret the economy in the United States is continuing to decline.

What surprises me, and it shouldn’t, is that our political leaders in D.C. don’t really seem to care beyond giving empty platitudes.

But our are political leaders to blame for all of the bad news concerning the job market? In my opinion they are only half the problem why so many American are out of work and finding it hard to find jobs.

It’s nothing new to hear how government fiscal irresponsibility has caused most of the problems that led to our failing economy, but the government continuing to be fiscally irresponsible only makes the situation worse.

Currently, 43 cents of every dollar the government spends is borrowed and continues to compound the national debt and devalue the dollar. Furthermore, it seems the government plans to continue this level of spending and maybe even spend more.

At the G20 Summit, Obama argued that governments need to keep up government spending, while other countries argued that what is needed is to decrease spending and reduce debt. When Obama’s Health Care Reform Act goes into effect, things are only going to get much worse economically.

As mentioned earlier, although the government created most of our economic problems, most are caused by communist/socialist Democrats who believe in government control of everything. However, as bad as the Democrats are for the country, I believe there is even a bigger threat making it hard for Americans to find jobs.

The threat bigger than Democrats to Americans seeking employment are the people who have conned businesses into believing in psychobabble b.s.

No offense, but if you’re a psychology major, I think your field is a farce.

Let me give a few examples. I decided to do some job searching to see just how bad things really are in the job market by applying to various jobs. I filled out applications to places like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, etc.

I even applied for jobs with staffing agencies that work with Wells Fargo and other companies.

For each application I filled out, I had to complete a survey that involved situations and rated feelings, agreement and disagreement for more than 100 questions.

Now the situation questions always left out one important answer for the possibility of choices, and that was: What does company policy and procedures say to do?

Basically it’s a crap shoot where you just have to hope you’re good at guessing what they want.

But then there is the psychological question you answer based on a range you are given or checking multiple boxes. The results are suppose to tell the employer if you are psychologically right for a position.

I was talking to friends and family whom have been job interviewing lately, and hearing stories about how in an interview they were asked to do things like draw a picture of a pig; this was somehow suppose to measure something about how they either think or what their personality is.

Whoever came up with these tests are conning companies that are buying into it as a way to justify a degree that is essentially a farce.

Until companies learn to stop going for fads and trends in the hiring process, jobs will continue to be hard to come by.

So the next time you apply for a position that requires filling our these psych tests, and you don’t get the job, remember to thank those who have psychology degrees — their psychobabble is making it hard for you to find any kind of work.