For Spillane, stress isn’t a mental illness. “The key element in occupational stress is a loss of control in what you do,” he says. “Sadly they’ve complicated the matter now by calling it ‘psychological injury’.”
“What [stress] used to be thought of is a condition from working in a job where there is too much or too little stimulation. For 30 or 40 years academics and researchers have been trying to redesign jobs to give people more control over what they do. However that becomes more difficult in a rigid hierarchy. In Australia we’re over managed and the more managers the less control you have.”
His low opinion of office psychology includes the practice of using psychometric testing for selection and development of employees.
“If those tests were able to predict performance there could be no technical objection to them. However they don’t and they never have. You might as well use a fortune teller.”
Not only did Spillane consider the testing to be inaccurate, he also believed it was unethical.
“They stereotype people, preferring an introvert over an extrovert or someone with low anxiety over high anxiety with no evidence that’s the correct decision,” he says.
“They’re being used to demote and promote however there is no evidence that they work in any way.”
Despite what Spillane says, he’s increasingly in the minority. Psychometric testing is being used more and more as businesses scramble to get the winning edge over their competitors in an increasingly tough market. However Spillane is unmoved.
“We’re in this postmodern and precious political world where people aren’t concerned about truth or facts and more with feelings,” he says.
“Workplaces in the country are high as a kite on psychomanagement at the moment.”
This article first appeared on LeadingCompany.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
