[math]

I've just recently discovered this world of personality typing. However, this discovery has uncovered an old memory for me. 9 years ago I was working at a bank as a teller. I worked in the drive-through. I was the fastest teller they had. It wasn't unusual for me to do hundreds more transactions in a day than my co-workers. However the bosses hated me because they said I didn't smile enough, and I wasn't friendly enough. It was my view that customers in the drive through aren't there to chat. They just want their transaction processed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

One day we had a meeting at the bank. We had some outside consultant come to the meeting. I'm not sure what it was about really because I didn't care too much and it was 9 years ago. I was just mad that I was forced to get up in the morning and work on my day off. At this meeting we took what I now realize was the MBTI. They then brought out a little board with the personality types on it (a 4 x 4 grid I think). Then they put a little dot for every employee at the bank. Everyone was clustered around one little area. I can't remember where they were because I didn't put too much stock in it at the time. However, I was this one little lonely dot in the opposite corner from everyone else. Then they singled me out and proceeded to inform everyone how I was probably very unhappy at this job and that I wasn't well suited for it. I don't remember what type I landed on that day but after reading the descriptions for INTJ I feel fairly sure that's what it was (possibly INTP).

So, I was wondering. Have any of you had your personality type used against you in some way like this? Were you singled out as different and weird and unsuited for particular tasks in front of your peers? Has anyone thought less of you because of your type?

[visitor]

All the time. I must be weird and have bodies hidden in my basement because I'm quiet and enjoy all things dark. I'm called, "mean" on a regular basis because I'm honest.

[True Rune]

Has the "theory" been used against me? No. Nobody irl is knowledgeable enough in the theory to do any damage. Has my personality? Yes. I find it hard to relate to most people and thus am often excluded.

[CoolD]

My job had an outside consultant come in and type everyone. I already knew I was an INTJ, but the consultant confirmed it and explained how to work with each personality.

So mine hasn't been used against me, but rather it has been easier since everyone knew my type and I knew theirs. I guess we focused on how to communicate with each other instead of singling out the negative about anyone. And I believe that, in my case, being identified as an INTJ has helped a lot because my co-workers learned how to deal with me and I learned how to deal with them.

[jhbowden79]

	Have you had your MBTI type used against you?

Only on online MBTI forums.

Ah, the hasty inference: website says type X acts like x, y, and z; person A is type X; therefore, person A must act like x, y, and z. In some places I don't even bother to list my type to avoid such silliness.

[shytiger]

I've noticed that INTJ's can often perform tasks very quickly. It must be our ability to focus. One question I can't help asking out of curiosity is: were they right?

As for me, nobody except my immediate family knows I'm an INTJ. It might serve me better if more people knew. I work as a mathematician (you too, math?), and my office has two INTPs, one INTJ other than me, an ENTJ, and an ENTP out of 13 total. So there's plenty of NT weirdness to go around.

[cyan2012]

I've also only had this problem on forums. However, in a job situation - depending on the job - I would probably be concerned if they asked about my MBTI type in an interview because of the reputation INTJs have for not being the most socially and emotionally aware individuals.

[SShack]

	Then they singled me out and proceeded to inform everyone how I was probably very unhappy at this job and that I wasn't well suited for it. I don't remember what type I landed on that day but after reading the descriptions for INTJ I feel fairly sure that's what it was (possibly INTP).

They actually said this out loud to everybody? Good lord, how unprofessional!

I haven't had that issue, if only because I am in a job that outwardly fits my MBTI type and I act like such an ENTP that my personality makes this additional knowledge of types a non-issue. Even if you didn't know MBTI, you'd know I was a smart-ass troublemaker with big -- often crazy -- ideas after about a day with me.

[anarchiste]

That is outrageous!

It sounds like mobbing - it is as if they discovered that you were born in January and yet the rest were all born in July. This is the problem when stuff like this gets taken way too seriously and becomes justification for management decisions.

Standardized and homogenized maybe that is what they want?

[Night Runner]

Step 1. Use this case (along with some similar ones) and lobby the Congress to make discrimination by MBTI type illegal.
Step 2. Become un-fire-able.
Step 3. Take over the world.
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[math]

	Originally Posted by Night Runner To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Step 1. Use this case (along with some similar ones) and lobby the Congress to make discrimination by MBTI type illegal. Step 2. Become un-fire-able. Step 3. Take over the world. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I actually wasn't fired. They took the cowards route. They just made me feel uncomfortable enough to leave. I was young. These days, I would have made them fire me.

[Lurch]

Math,

Did they actually single you out by name, or did they just speak in general terms of "This person here blah blah..". Man, I think I would've been furious if that had been done to me, since I'm so private by nature.


On a side note, threads like this one got me thinking about something; rather than start a new thread I'll just include it in this one if nobody minds.

So here goes-

Let's say you work in a professional setting with a couple dozen or so colleagues, and it's a pretty tight-knit group. The boss is one of those that emphasizes touchy-feely relationships and sees the group as one big "family".

So one day at work the boss announces that for team-building day, everyone is going to take the MBTI, and share and discuss results. Everyone will know everyone else's result.

Let's say you're already familiar with the MBTI and you know ahead of time you're an INTJ.

The question is, do you take the test honestly, knowing that you're likely to get the INTJ result, and risk the ramifications/fallout that come with all your co-workers knowing, or do you purposely skew your own test so that your result is one of the more "acceptable" types.

Me, because I've never taken a "real" MBTI before, I'd take the test honestly as possible just to see if I did in fact get INTJ, and live with the resulting fallout. My co-workers already think I'm an oddball (though respected), so a little more weirdness probably wouldn't make much difference!

[Elfrun]

Nothing as absurdly incompetent and unprofessional as the OPs experience as I have more knowledge than 99% of the people who ever raise MBTI with me outside the forums, most people just don't care.

	Originally Posted by jhbowden79 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Only on online MBTI forums.

Same. I got told that I obviously didn't care about someone else's point of view because as a T I have no feelings. Stupid, needy ExFP called me close minded because her pov was crazy Fi warped and she rejected basic logic. Ah the irony.

[Eye on Earth]

	Originally Posted by math To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	So, I was wondering. Have any of you had your personality type used against you in some way like this? Were you singled out as different and weird and unsuited for particular tasks in front of your peers? Has anyone thought less of you because of your type?

Unfortunately, yes. I thought I would do myself and my boss a favor several years ago by letting him read my personality profile after I took a course in which all the participants were tested against several personality tests. I turned out to be INTJ under MBTI and similar to INTJ on the other tests. I found the experience to be revealing and a great relief because here was my life in a report about 50 pages long--very cool.

So, I gave my boss this large document and asked him to read it at his leisure. What I expected was the idea that he would understand me better. Little did I realize he was nothing like me and he began to use "me" against "me." He started pushing all my buttons and eventually accused me of being an awful human being during a post-evaulation session in which he chastized me for being good at what I was good at and for being really bad at what he felt (he's a strong F) was the correct thing to do.

To say the least it was devastating and very unprofessional. I will never forgive him.

Post note - when I asked for my profile back he initially said he threw it away! Then it showed up on my desk several weeks later and I saw someone else (not my boss) walking away from my desk at the same time. My belief is that he handed out my profile to others after I had given it to him in confidence. What an asshole!

Moral of the story - never let your profile out of your sight.

[Lurch]

Eye on Earth:

Ouch, damn. Oh well, lesson learned. I had a similar embarrassing experience at a previous job, wherein I told my boss some sensitive info regarding a medical absence, and within a day or two EVERYONE at work knew about it and was teasing me. As you said, What an asshole!!

For you younger folks out there reading this, take these stories to heart as a warning. Some things just really aren't any business of others, and you probably don't want to share potentially damaging/sensitive info with anyone who has power over you (ie, your boss).

Sharing your personality type, while on the surface may seem like it'd open doors, is likely to be used for evil purposes against you. As you get older, more jaded, and more used to the despicable nature of people, you'll understand.
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[AcuMan]

When I started a new job, I was given a personality type questionnaire. I suspected that testing as an INTJ would label me as having poor people skills and "not a team player." So I lied on the test and answered the questions as a type that I thought would be more attractive to the employer.

[Napoleptic]

	Originally Posted by math To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I actually wasn't fired. They took the cowards route. They just made me feel uncomfortable enough to leave. I was young. These days, I would have made them fire me.

Isn't it great to know that bullying exists even in the adult world?
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This whole thread is just very disappointing to me. Page after page suggests that INTJs are misunderstood, then those pages go on to explain who we are - a chance to finally be understood!! To see it twisted and be used to actually further the already existing misunderstanding...it just makes me so mad I could spit.
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[Jarem Asyder]

I haven't really had my personality used against me that I can think of. I have a friend who's obsessed with horoscopes and tries to use my sign against me and I'm sure if she knew my mbti she'd try using that as well.

The whole personality typing thing is reductive and can only go so far. Anyone who would judge me based on that alone isn't really worth my time I feel.

[Distance]

When telling my friends about being an ENTJ, the ones that know anything about MBTI pretty much said "figures". They were not surprised and thought this was a much better fit than INTJ.

Previously, thought I was an INTJ and some said "you're an introvert?" in a surprised way. I was surprised that they were surprised, considering my habit of wandering off to do my own thing, not contacting anyone for lengths of time and sometimes not responding to their chatty emails. But then, my friends are raging extroverts so they NEED to connect all the time.

Beyond this site and with close friends, I don't discuss my MBTI type. It's no one's business but my own.

[rbc]

	Originally Posted by True Rune To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Has the "theory" been used against me? No. Nobody irl is knowledgeable enough in the theory to do any damage.

In my experience, quite a few people know just enough to be dangerous. Back in high school, I attended a summer program at which the roommate assignments were done by MBTI type. We took the full MBTI as part of the admissions process, but not until week 3 of 4 did we get our results back; when we did, we immediately figured out what they'd done, and many were horrified. The suites had been grouped by Keirsey temperament, so all the NTs shared one living room & bathroom, all the NFs shared another, etc. That part wasn't bad at all. What really got me was the realization that they had made every roommate pair within each suite consist of one E and one I. I think the gooey-minded EF camp director had decided we sullen introverts couldn't be really happy alone, so she decided to make sure each of us had someone assigned to help drag us kicking and screaming out of our protective shells. It sure didn't work that way, though -- since every single I (exactly one half of the camp) had been set up with *no* escape from people to recharge, we all HATED our roommates.

	Originally Posted by Night Runner To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	lobby the Congress to make discrimination by MBTI type illegal.

About five years ago, it looked like my company was actually heading that way. The required diversity training included not only every legally protected category, but a bunch of others besides. One of them was a garbled version of Keirsey temperament. It's a good thing for me it was computer-based training, not face-to-face, or I'd have gotten in trouble for being insensitive to the instructor by correcting the class materials in public.

[sircockburn]

Yes, and this was before I was interested in MBTI.

On those useless employment personality tests, I deliberately pick the "right" answers, which probably would point to ESFJ.

However I remember in my marketing class we had to take an actual MBTI test, and answering instinctively, I scored ENTJ. Little did I know he'd present a slide displaying the results of the whole class, and actually had us pick out project groups based on this. (Had I known, I would have gone for ESTP haha) Since the professor had already gone over the MBTI basics, and I participated a lot in the class, and mingled with a lot of people, people knew who I was and thus, what result I had.

First thing the (ISFJ) floozy next to me says is: "If I join your group, you won't be harsh and demanding like an ENTJ, will you? I'm sorry!! I don't mean to be rude, but that's what the professor said you guys are like. Sorry! I hope I don't sound mean!"

Me: "Katie, was I 'harsh and demanding' last week when we worked on the global branding project?"

She's lucky she didn't try that with an actual ENTJ. But some people take MBTI waayyy too literally. It should be used as a guidebook, not a Bible.

[ms infp]

	Originally Posted by Lurch To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The question is, do you take the test honestly, knowing that you're likely to get the INTJ result, and risk the ramifications/fallout that come with all your co-workers knowing, or do you purposely skew your own test so that your result is one of the more "acceptable" types.

Taking your question out of its original context . . .

I took a test for a sales job once. I could tell in a heartbeat that the questions were aimed at identifying the test-taker's type. I waffled a little bit, deciding whether I should answer honestly or make myself out to sound like an ENFP (most people think I'm an extrovert, anyway), but I decided to answer honestly. Didn't get the job.

Obviously there could have been any number of other factors that "disqualified" me for the job, but that test certainly couldn't have helped.

Oh, and I don't remember now where I read about it, but the fear that MBTI would become a point of discrimination has been around a long time. I find it ironic how discrimination itself can be so predictable.

[Lurch]

	Originally Posted by sircockburn To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	...... First thing the (ISFJ) floozy next to me says is: "If I join your group, you won't be harsh and demanding like an ENTJ, will you? I'm sorry!! I don't mean to be rude, but that's what the professor said you guys are like. Sorry! I hope I don't sound mean!" Me: "Katie, was I 'harsh and demanding' last week when we worked on the global branding project?" .....

This is hilarious in that she already knew you and then all of a sudden she believed a test result instead of her own experience with you!

Originally Posted by ms infp To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Taking your question out of its original context . . . I took a test for a sales job once. I could tell in a heartbeat that the questions were aimed at identifying the test-taker's type. I waffled a little bit, deciding whether I should answer honestly or make myself out to sound like an ENFP (most people think I'm an extrovert, anyway), but I decided to answer honestly. Didn't get the job. .......

Literal proof that honesty doesn't pay!! (haha, forgive the smartass INTJ humor)

But yeah, from what I've heard, those interview "tests" DO have right and wrong answers, and you should tell 'em what you think they want to hear. Though that type of test is in fact discriminatory, I guess the saving grace is that it's usually blindingly obvious what the intent is, and you can pick the "right" answers. (unless you're having a fatal attack of honesty at the time!)

[Azmorgrim]

I am not against personality testing in work if it is used constructively such as understanding how your colleagues work and how to forge a better relationship with them. But I have seen it been used in a negative way so much it is, quite frankly, disgusting.

I've heard of people getting rejected job interviews just because they do not fill in the right answers for Unicru; there should be no need to cheat on any personality test.

I also dislike the discriminating of people based on these typings e.g. INTJs are anti-social weirdos not suitable for such job requirements. While it's probably true, we are surprisingly capable of socialising though it takes some effort to do that.

I love reading my personality reports, and I would love to show it to others so that they can understand me better, but the thought of having it used against me puts me off doing so. I have never told anyone about my personality type simply because if they have been around me for a fair bit of time, they should be able to assess my character well enough. Nobody I know seems to even recognise the existence of personality testing anyway so if I were to say INTJ, they wouldn't care what an INTJ is.

[ms infp]

	Originally Posted by Lurch To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Literal proof that honesty doesn't pay!! (haha, forgive the smartass INTJ humor)

No no, sarcastic humor is much appreciated. In fact, when I didn't get the job, "honesty doesn't pay" was my first thought!

	Originally Posted by Lurch To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I guess the saving grace is that it's usually blindingly obvious what the intent is, and you can pick the "right" answers. (unless you're having a fatal attack of honesty at the time!)

Yeah, I could have finagled the results, but I think I was more interested in seeing what would happen if I went with the truth, and since it was the truth - and I knew they were looking for something different - is it fair to count my behavior as self-sabotage?
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Originally Posted by Azmorgrim To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I love reading my personality reports, and I would love to show it to others so that they can understand me better, but the thought of having it used against me puts me off doing so. I have never told anyone about my personality type simply because if they have been around me for a fair bit of time, they should be able to assess my character well enough. Nobody I know seems to even recognise the existence of personality testing anyway so if I were to say INTJ, they wouldn't care what an INTJ is.

Once your character has been established, as you say, is the time to present people with your report. If you give it to them too soon it can backfire, as has happened to me with prospective romantic partners. Your fears are justified.