Why is everyone now complaining about the polygraph for the HRM employees? They’ve been using it for years and no one has complained. And then the media “scoops” it now. Well, why didn’t they find out before? I am not impressed by your supposed investigative skills.
Yes, the questions are embarassing, but clearly not embarassing enough. And do you know why? Because a lot of the positions in the HRM that require you pass a polygraph are pretty sweet jobs. Take the fire department. They work two 24-hour shifts a week. Most have second jobs and therefore pull in good salaries. Yes, they run into fires, but only on occasion. This is Halifax. A good portion of the guys in the department are in communities outside of the city and the most exciting call they will ever see is someone’s cat in a tree. So applicants might cringe at answering questions about sex with animals, but they don’t rock the boat because they just want the job.
Some people will do anything to get a secure, unionized government gig with benefits. I would say answering those questions would be a small price to pay.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2008.
What if I grew up on a farm and had my first sexual experience with an overturned bucket and the moist business end of a cow?
Would they actually deny a person the position if they answered yes? Is it a determining factor of their ability to do their job effectively? Are they even allowed to deny someone the position simply based on the fact that they would have had sexual relations with an animal?