Q: My wife is a certified professional in health care. On a recent Sunday, she saw an ad posted by a local hospital. She couldn’t believe how perfectly she fit the qualifications. She sent a resume via e-mail that went to a “human resources consultant” contracted by the hospital. The consultant, who sounded about 12, informed my wife she would have to take a test over the phone. My wife was asked about her personality, hobbies and interests, and other questions that were vocationally oriented but not particularly appropriate, such as, “Do you have stamina?” My wife didn’t get a call back. Instead, she was round-filed by a consultant who probably took Psych 102 and evolved this stupid measure of a candidate’s suitability. – Clay

Kate: Job ads are information – they are evidence that an organization is hiring. But if all you do is answer the ad, your application is in there with everyone else’s. And you wind up taking a test about your hobbies. Your wife should immediately contact supervisors at that hospital and ask for a meeting. She also should repeat the process with every hospital where she’d like to work. If all goes well, she won’t have to talk to an HR consultant, or if she does, it will be after the consultant is told the hospital wants to hire her.

Dale: Still, Clay, your wife needs to understand that her work is just a part of her job. By that, I mean that doing the technical part of her job is just one piece of being employed by an organization. If a job candidate is annoyed by management wanting to know about her broader life and her weltanschauung, and management provides a test that might determine, for instance, that a candidate is dismissive of younger co-workers (she “sounded about 12”), then maybe the test isn’t so stupid after all.

Q: Who works for free? Do you, Dale or Kate? I read the sheepish advice you gave one of your readers regarding not getting paid for overtime. My advice is, unless you’re totally unskilled, incompetent or have zero self-confidence, you don’t work for free. And to advise someone to “keep smiling” when she’s not getting paid for time worked is even more ridiculous. She needs to approach her manager, with a smile of course, and say, “I need to be compensated for all my time worked – including overtime.” If her boss has an issue with that – find another job. – Bart

Kate: I agree completely. People have to stand up for themselves or they’ll be walked all over. They stop working overtime by explaining – not complaining – saying, “I’m working as hard as I can.” Doing so with a smile, of course – at least we’re all in agreement on that.

Dale: Yes, we’re all grinning like local newscasters. But this isn’t an issue of facial muscles, it’s a philosophy of working. Work at the highest level consists of “circles-of-helping.” The woman who prompted our advice was glad to help out a short-handed team, but was growing weary of the extra effort and worrying that the situation might become permanent, given a budget crisis. So we urged her to focus her discussion with management on the quality of the work and on customers, rather than on herself. If management doesn’t care about her caring about customers, that’s when it’s time to find another job.