Thursday, July 20, 2006

Bed[-]sharing 'drains men's brains'/Russians' 'Creative' Job Interviews

Bed[-]sharing 'drains men's brains':

[...]When men spend the night with a bed mate their sleep is disturbed, whether they make love or not, and this impairs their mental ability the next day.

The lack of sleep also increases a man's stress hormone levels.

According to the New Scientist study, women who share a bed fare better because they sleep more deeply.[...]
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If you survive the interview, you get the job

I read this in last week's Sunday Times, and knew i had to type it out, here. Thankfully, it's on-line:
AT FIRST the job interview seemed to be going well for Natasha Grishkina. The questions were straightforward and the female interviewer seemed friendly. But suddenly the atmosphere changed.

The woman started shouting, accusing Grishkina of lying about her qualifications. Yelling abuse, she ordered the 26-year-old applicant to leave, throwing her CV after her.

The next day the same recruiter telephoned to offer her the job. Her hostility, she explained, had been faked to test how Grishkina reacted to difficult situations. “I was so shocked I told her to get lost,” said Grishkina, a public relations manager in Moscow.

As Russian businesses grow more competitive, employers are increasingly using the so-called “stressovoye” — stressful interview — to help them hire the best staff. Interviewers shout at applicants, throw water over them, insult them and ask intimate personal questions.

Elena Agoshina, a 32-year-old personal assistant, stormed out of a job interview at a Moscow headhunting firm when the female recruiter first congratulated her on her successful interview, then said there was one small formality: her future boss liked Scandinavian-looking women and “before you get the job we’ll have to colour your hair and improve your nose and lips with a bit of plastic surgery. But don’t worry we’ll pay for everything”.[...]

Recruiters claim unconventional methods help them to assess potential staff more accurately. Throwing a glass of water in someone’s face is said to be especially revealing: the interviewee is considered to have strength of character and leadership qualities if they react aggressively.

If the humiliation fails to provoke a reaction, the candidate is seen as ideal for a boss seeking a submissive deputy with little ambition who will pose no threat.[...]

Some firms call new employees with a bogus job offer from another company. Those who express an interest are sacked for disloyalty.

However, many in Russia find such tactics unacceptable. Grigory Ganin, 32, a Moscow telecommunications manager, said: “No serious professional would stand for such treatment. If a recruiter threw water at me I would definitely hit him in the face.”

Clearly he is a born leader.
Indeed.

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