So, I had to take a personality test at work.  It was the same type stuff that we took in college.  I mean, really, after all I was a psychology major for goodness sake.  We studied about those things incessantly.  I think they have their place and they do good things, but I have to say that when they are taken so seriously that you don’t look at the actual behavior of the person being “studied” you miss a lot.  Personality is not what someone puts on a scoresheet – it’s what someone does from day to day.

My current personality test said I was assertive.  Check.  It said I had some low self-esteem.  Okay, I’ll give them that one.  I think the day I took the personality test I was probably in a bad mood because we were trying to close on our house sale, it was my birthday, and it was a week into the bar exam prep.  I wasn’t feeling too high on myself that day after not knowing very much about the bar – or less than I thought I would have known after four years of school.  It also said I had great personal conflict resolution skills.  Check.  I was great at the mediation class, even if I did get a 2.7 because I didn’t pay complete and total attention the last few hours because I GOT it after the fiftieth faux mediation event.  It also said I was unorganized and cluttered.  HUH?  I am exactly the opposite.

You are looking at the most organized person I know.  I have organized other people’s stuff – closets, houses, boxes, moving boxes, garages, etc.  My soup labels in my pantry all face the same way for goodness sake.  I moved and unpacked and entire 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house in a weekend.  Top that, Mr. Know It All Personality Test Person.

This does lead me, as I study torts, to wonder if anyone has ever sued one of these charlatans for causing that person to lose a job, a promotion, or other such harm, based on a false personality test?  I wonder….