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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Previous: GE remote control packaging | Main | Next: Dryer rack
October 5, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Auto Zone job application
A reader named Brett writes in:
This is a picture of a part of a paper employment application for AutoZone.
In the "Reason for leaving your previous job" section of the application, they ask you to be specific but there is only text space big enough to write 3 words, which definitely doesn't allow enough space for a specific explanation!
I don't believe that I have EVER seen an employment application that showed me that the person who created the form had given ANY thought whatsoever to the appropriate amount of space for a field.
Typical is to see a tall, broad space, one that goes all the way across the page, for your date of birth, then a 1"x1" square for your employment history.
Okay, I exaggerated, but that is the kind of brokenness I am talking about.
These forms have nothing on the City, State, County, and University jobs in North Carolina. All of which require you to have the entire job history of every job you've ever worked. As far as I can tell the only possible motive for making someone like my mother (62, ESL teacher) fill out an application like this is to convince her not to. Because asking a 62 year old woman to list every part time job she's ever had, the name of every manager, the phone number and address of those places, and what she was paid is insane. Are they really going to call for references on a part-time job she had at age 15... in 1959? Or, did someone not stop to think about the implications of these forms? Or, did they do it on purpose, wanting to recruit employees with shorter job histories - and thus less experience (less pay) and much smaller health insurance costs. I don't know, but it's insane!
Perhaps in context this would seem less peculiar but quite aside from the ludicrous supply of space here, what exactly does 'If no please explain' mean?
Maybe it's not broken. After all, such a short space does force one to be specific.
For example:
"I quit"
"I was fired"
"I'm incompetent"
"I embezzeled"
"Lotto"
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Previous: GE remote control packaging | Main | Next: Dryer rack
Security clearance forms are notorious for this sort of thing. "Have you ever been arrested? If so, explain the circumstances in detail including dates, location, arresting agency, charges and dispositions, whether or not you were finally convicted" --followed by approximately one inch of space for the answer.
Posted by: Erich at October 5, 2006 02:11 AM