4 ms·

That is exactly what happened to my Coworker. She interviewed for a public job and they gave her the thumbs up. She passed the background check, and gave her tw

That is exactly what happened to my Coworker. She interviewed for a public job and they gave her the thumbs up. She passed the background check, and gave her two weeks notice. Then, some inconsistency came up. Apparently, on her application she checked the box for never having smoked weed. But on a second document she checked the "Yes" box. This is California 2015, they asked her to do a polygraph test. She failed. Couple days later, she called the first job to see if she can come back. They were bitter that she left, but because of an extremely high turnover rate, they let her back in. It was never the same for her. So yeah, have a guarantee at the new job before you quit the first one.

teen 6y ago
bizarre they use a polygraph test when it's known to be psudeoscientific
- VLM 6y ago
  The pseudoscience issue doesn't matter; pragmatically it works. Its intentionally designed to be intimidating for three very non psudeoscientific reasons. Will you break under pressure? Some fraction truly believe and will confess in terror and can be filtered out. A weak effect is its an intelligence test, obviously it is not magickal and if you're smart enough you'll see thru it. It hasn't been gotten rid of because there really is no downside. It is cheaper than the expensive labor intensive alternatives like interviewing more people or trying to find more records. Much like astrology or prayer or swearing on a bible in a court of law, it is cheap and effective enough with minimal cost.
  - whoisjuan 6y ago
    > Will you break under pressure? Break? Break what? This makes no sense. It’s not like they have verifiable information to see if you break too easily. You’re making it sound like they were hiring a spy. Polygraph test are common in the public sector. They simply do this for bureaucracy reasons. Government agencies need to comply with a bunch of old standards so they can demonstrate they performed all possible verifications in case they go under investigation. Agencies don’t want to be in the position where a security clearance they granted is scrutinized only to find that they didn’t do a polygraph test while all the other agencies still perform polygraph tests. Everyone knows polygraph tests are bullshit. They do them because they have too, not because they find them useful.
- Spooky23 6y ago
  It’s an interrogation with a prop.
  - teen 6y ago
    I see... this makes sense
nullc 6y ago
In California private employers and state/local are unconditionally prohibited from requiring employees or prospective employees take a polygraph. It's actually a crime for a California employer to turn someone down for a job because they refused to take a polygraph (which is also why you should always refuse to take a polygraph for a non-federal employer in California). Presumably your example was for a federal job. There is also a similar federal law but it exempts government jobs.

teen 6y ago

bizarre they use a polygraph test when it's known to be psudeoscientific

VLM 6y ago
The pseudoscience issue doesn't matter; pragmatically it works. Its intentionally designed to be intimidating for three very non psudeoscientific reasons. Will you break under pressure? Some fraction truly believe and will confess in terror and can be filtered out. A weak effect is its an intelligence test, obviously it is not magickal and if you're smart enough you'll see thru it. It hasn't been gotten rid of because there really is no downside. It is cheaper than the expensive labor intensive alternatives like interviewing more people or trying to find more records. Much like astrology or prayer or swearing on a bible in a court of law, it is cheap and effective enough with minimal cost.
- whoisjuan 6y ago
  > Will you break under pressure? Break? Break what? This makes no sense. It’s not like they have verifiable information to see if you break too easily. You’re making it sound like they were hiring a spy. Polygraph test are common in the public sector. They simply do this for bureaucracy reasons. Government agencies need to comply with a bunch of old standards so they can demonstrate they performed all possible verifications in case they go under investigation. Agencies don’t want to be in the position where a security clearance they granted is scrutinized only to find that they didn’t do a polygraph test while all the other agencies still perform polygraph tests. Everyone knows polygraph tests are bullshit. They do them because they have too, not because they find them useful.
Spooky23 6y ago
It’s an interrogation with a prop.
- teen 6y ago
  I see... this makes sense

nullc 6y ago

In California private employers and state/local are unconditionally prohibited from requiring employees or prospective employees take a polygraph. It's actually a crime for a California employer to turn someone down for a job because they refused to take a polygraph (which is also why you should always refuse to take a polygraph for a non-federal employer in California). Presumably your example was for a federal job. There is also a similar federal law but it exempts government jobs.