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I didn’t read it as a deliberate test, but that if the driver let them know the candidate was rude, it would be a negative mark.

by JoBrad 4y ago

ALittleLight 4y ago
"The taxi driver would sometimes complain to the people in the hiring loop when a candidate was rude to him." That also seems pretty implausible to me. The taxi driver is going to text or email HR or the hiring manager or someone? How frequently are people so rude to the taxi driver that they are disqualified from consideration? Does the taxi driver get compensated? Why is the taxi driver doing this? Does anybody vet the taxi driver's personality testing ability?
- krisoft 4y ago
  > 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 trusted taxi driver they always work with. He lets him know who needs the ride and when. They exchange pleasantries. George also lets him know that the one on Monday cussed him out when he thought George was not driving fast enough. Joe laughs, and tells George that that’s crazy since he is always on time if not early. George feels good about that. He likes that Joe noticed that he is always punctual. They say good byes . Joe makes a mental note to not hire the cussing candidate. What is implausible about this? > How frequently are people so rude to the taxi driver that they are disqualified from consideration? Have you met people? Happens all the time. > Does the taxi driver get compensated? Yes. He receives a steady supply of rides and the company pays him for that. > Why is the taxi driver doing this? He is a human being and those in general don’t like it when someone mistreats them. They let others know when it happens. > Does anybody vet the taxi driver's personality testing ability? Yes. It is called a personal connection. The driver behaves like a decent human being and only rarely say that someone was rude to them so the hiring manager believes them when it happens. I think the reason you find this story implausible is because you are thinking on a different scale. A team of hiring managers managing 500 interviews per week for a megacorp can’t do this. They won’t have the mental bandwidth, they won’t use a specific driver, they won’t have the personal connection. Not every company is that size. Some company might only interview a few people a week.
  - ALittleLight 4y ago
    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 the company after every person he drops off there? Taxi drivers drive dozens of people a day, he's supposed to remember or take notes on some random guy? It's also bizarre to me that the company would have a "trusted taxi driver". A trusted driver for executives or something might make sense, but a trusted driver who isn't employed by your organization that you specifically route candidates through? It just doesn't sound like the type of thing that happens much to me. Finally, on the subject of people being randomly rude to taxi drivers, never having been a taxi driver I don't have real first hand information. I did ride a public city bus multiple times a day for years though and the number of people who I witnessed being rude to the driver, who were not visibly drunk or homeless, is zero. It just doesn't fit with my experience of humanity to think that, in a typical daytime taxi ride you're going to get much absurdly inappropriate behavior - i.e behavior that would rise to the level of disqualifying the candidate. Maybe if the taxi driver were a woman I'd believe it, but I bet the vast majority of people would just say where they wanted to go and little else.
    - lupire 4y ago
      Not everyone knows that a private "black car" "car service", which is often a single car and driver, is commonly not called a "taxi".
      - Ekaros 4y ago
        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...
    - omegaham 4y ago
      I can't speak for the rest of this story, but I will say that where I live, every taxi driver at the airport is also trying to set up their own "livery service" gig - that is, a group of regulars who frequently use them as their favorite taxi. So the part of "trusted driver" isn't dubious at all - it's totally plausible that a business would keep hiring the same driver on a predictable schedule to take candidates from the airport.
- hluska 4y ago
- fortran77 4y ago
  And everyone clapped! The taxi driver's name? "Albert Einstein."

I didn’t read it as a deliberate test, but that if the driver let them know the candidate was rude, it would be a negative mark.

by JoBrad 4y ago

I didn’t read it as a deliberate test, but that if the driver let them know the candidate was rude, it would be a negative mark.

ALittleLight 4y ago

"The taxi driver would sometimes complain to the people in the hiring loop when a candidate was rude to him." That also seems pretty implausible to me. The taxi driver is going to text or email HR or the hiring manager or someone? How frequently are people so rude to the taxi driver that they are disqualified from consideration? Does the taxi driver get compensated? Why is the taxi driver doing this? Does anybody vet the taxi driver's personality testing ability?

krisoft 4y ago
> 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 trusted taxi driver they always work with. He lets him know who needs the ride and when. They exchange pleasantries. George also lets him know that the one on Monday cussed him out when he thought George was not driving fast enough. Joe laughs, and tells George that that’s crazy since he is always on time if not early. George feels good about that. He likes that Joe noticed that he is always punctual. They say good byes . Joe makes a mental note to not hire the cussing candidate. What is implausible about this? > How frequently are people so rude to the taxi driver that they are disqualified from consideration? Have you met people? Happens all the time. > Does the taxi driver get compensated? Yes. He receives a steady supply of rides and the company pays him for that. > Why is the taxi driver doing this? He is a human being and those in general don’t like it when someone mistreats them. They let others know when it happens. > Does anybody vet the taxi driver's personality testing ability? Yes. It is called a personal connection. The driver behaves like a decent human being and only rarely say that someone was rude to them so the hiring manager believes them when it happens. I think the reason you find this story implausible is because you are thinking on a different scale. A team of hiring managers managing 500 interviews per week for a megacorp can’t do this. They won’t have the mental bandwidth, they won’t use a specific driver, they won’t have the personal connection. Not every company is that size. Some company might only interview a few people a week.
- ALittleLight 4y ago
  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 the company after every person he drops off there? Taxi drivers drive dozens of people a day, he's supposed to remember or take notes on some random guy? It's also bizarre to me that the company would have a "trusted taxi driver". A trusted driver for executives or something might make sense, but a trusted driver who isn't employed by your organization that you specifically route candidates through? It just doesn't sound like the type of thing that happens much to me. Finally, on the subject of people being randomly rude to taxi drivers, never having been a taxi driver I don't have real first hand information. I did ride a public city bus multiple times a day for years though and the number of people who I witnessed being rude to the driver, who were not visibly drunk or homeless, is zero. It just doesn't fit with my experience of humanity to think that, in a typical daytime taxi ride you're going to get much absurdly inappropriate behavior - i.e behavior that would rise to the level of disqualifying the candidate. Maybe if the taxi driver were a woman I'd believe it, but I bet the vast majority of people would just say where they wanted to go and little else.
  - lupire 4y ago
    Not everyone knows that a private "black car" "car service", which is often a single car and driver, is commonly not called a "taxi".
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      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...
  - omegaham 4y ago
    I can't speak for the rest of this story, but I will say that where I live, every taxi driver at the airport is also trying to set up their own "livery service" gig - that is, a group of regulars who frequently use them as their favorite taxi. So the part of "trusted driver" isn't dubious at all - it's totally plausible that a business would keep hiring the same driver on a predictable schedule to take candidates from the airport.
hluska 4y ago
fortran77 4y ago
And everyone clapped! The taxi driver's name? "Albert Einstein."