The surprising reason overachievers don’t get promoted

[Gerald]

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/201...et-a-promotion

Note: 12 September 2014

Everything has its time.

[Wolferz]

Not surprising at all. At least not from my point of view. After graduating from an electronics technical school with a 3.9 GPA, I interviewed and tested for a job along with several classmates. One of them was a 4.0 student and he was unable to pass the companies psyche test, even after three attempts. When I asked one of the managers about it, he stated that the man was too linear in his thinking and they had discovered that linear thinkers tended to bang their heads against every problem while looking for the perfect solution as if they wore blinders. Sometimes you need to step back and find an alternate remedy to solve a problem. Linear thinkers are incapable of doing that.

Overachievers tend to be linear in their thinking. It's not always a desirable quality to have in the workplace.

[Stealhead]

I think it depends on the workplace and the particular job. I can see an overachiever not being good as a supervisor but they could be perfect for certain positions like factory worker where you can have a linear mindset and all you need to to is keep making parts.

Personally I think those psychological tests are marlaky. I think the better purpose they serve is to weed out the people too lazy to complete them who of course wont even get interviewed. The other problem is people always fill them out with answers they expect the company to be looking for. Usually there is a question such as "you do not get along with worker X what to you do?" of course most will give the most mature answer even if in real life they'll make a problem of it.

[vanjast]

You got to love those psycho tests...
'Sorry George you're a Type-A personality - not suitable you know'

The brain around 100 billion neurons, all constructed and work differently, 7 billion people... and they Type personalise you into a few basic types. I suppose HR have to feel good about something.

One person I know who works for a large corporation, mentioned that he found the company's HR department so easy to manipulate.
'they're like a bunch of school teachers wanting order and control in their work place, I just appease and play up to their company fantasies.. and I'm the golden boy... and they don't even realise that I'm doing this'.

I just laughed

[mapuc]

On some of the places I have worked I have noticed that skill not necessary gives promotion it's the skill of using the toung on the chiefs....that seemed to give the promotion

Even in the military I noticed that being there giving salute and obey orders was more important than skilled in practice and theories.
(Sweden's "officer club" is still very aristocratic in its buildup. It much easier for an rich and famous to become an officer than an ordinary man from the working class)

Markus

[TarJak]

I find your post oddly disturbing...

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by mapuc

On some of the places I have worked I have noticed that skill not necessary gives promotion it's the skill of using the toung on the chiefs....that seemed to give the promotion

Even in the military I noticed that being there giving salute and obey orders was more important than skilled in practice and theories.
(Sweden's "officer club" is still very aristocratic in its buildup. It much easier for an rich and famous to become an officer than an ordinary man from the working class)

Markus

I think we call that brown nosing in the US.

[Gerald]

[Stealhead]

Man that boss is very touchy-feely.

[Gerald]

^He lays out the cards well.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by TarJak

I find your post oddly disturbing...

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I think we call that brown nosing in the US.

LOL...Rgr that