Personality tests are some of the most popular posts on social media. At least once every day, I see “What Sauce Are You?” or “What Disney Princess Are You?” on my Facebook feed. Millions of people take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test each year, a more professional personality test. When you take the MBTI, you’re presented with a personality type, based on four characteristics, extrovert-introvert (E/I); sensing -intuition (S/N); thinking-feeling (T-F); and judging – perceiving (J/P).

Many organizations use the MBTI in the workplace to group people into teams or to select candidates for employment. After all, wouldn’t you want an extrovert over an introvert for a sales position? But using the MBTI to make serious business decisions may not be a good idea. Here’s why.

It’s unethical to use the MBTI in certain cases.

According to the creators of the MBTI, “It is unethical and in many cases illegal to require job applicants to take the Indicator if the results will be used to screen out applicants. The administrator should not counsel a person to, or away from, a particular career, personal relationship or activity based solely upon type information.”

Personality type does not imply competence or preference.

The creators of MBTI also state this in their ethical position on the personality test. I am an introvert. I will always be an introvert. But I just found out that some of my colleagues believe I am an extrovert. I can adapt to a social or business situation to get the job done. If a job used the MBTI to place me on a team, they may see that I don’t always behave like an introvert. Similarly, a job may overlook me for a position based on my MBTI type. Either way, it’s kind of unfair.

How can you use the MBTI?

The MBTI can be beneficial to help people understand their own tendencies. I remember one thing from the test, a question about whether you base your decisions on how they impact others. Years ago, I would have answered that totally in the positive. I always considered others in making my decisions, whether I should or shouldn’t have. Today, I would answer that question much differently. My understanding of boundaries is much better.

Your MBTI type can be a great communication starter, especially in teams. But it shouldn’t typecast you into a particular position on the team. Employers should not be using the MBTI to pigeonhole their employees.

You ain’t gotta go to work, work, work

To some people, “working remotely” sounds like a code word for sitting around in your PJs watching Netflix all day.

But many professionals, managers and otherwise, recognize the value of the flexibility and independence that comes with working from home occasionally.

Pros of remote work

Depending on your role, your commute, and your personal life, benefits of working from home could include:
Reallocating commute time into productivity. 45 minutes each way means an hour and a half of wasted time – and you’re probably already tired by the time you get to work.
Uninterrupted periods of focused work. Coworkers are a wonderful resource for collaboration, and even friendship, but even the most awesome people can be annoying when you really, really, really need to focus.
Energizing quiet time. Introverts often underestimate how much they mentally need this, and everyone can use a reset once in a while.
More time to spend with kids/spouse/friends. Again, you can save time on your commute, and often you can rearrange your schedule to work a few hours after the kids have gone to bed/the movie is over/etc.

If you’ve already made that list of benefits in your head a thousand times while knocking your head against your office desk, a work arrangement that includes remote work days is definitely something you should try, if your organization and your manager will agree to it.

What’s between you and your home office?

But for many potential remote workers, getting the boss onboard seems like an unsurmountable barrier, and they may have even made the request in the past but been denied. This article is designed to help all those interested in remote work successfully navigate that daunting process.

Before we get into the details of potential concerns your boss may have, you should establish a clear reason (or reasons) why you’d like to transition to a schedule that includes working from home.

If you can’t articulate this fundamental point, your boss will be much more likely to suspect that your motives are less than pure. Both personal and professional reasons are totally valid, but being totally open is the only way to set yourself up for success.

The game plan

With these motivations in mind, develop a proposal for your boss that focuses on how working from home will benefit your organization, not you. Your boss knows that you’re asking for this flexibility for yourself, but a happier and more productive you is way better for the company than a miserable, exhausted you.

Your proposal should include a schedule or plan, and you should probably start slow with the work from home days.

If your goal is to work from home two days a week, suggest spending one day at home every two weeks for a set period, like two or three months, so that your boss will have a built in trial period to agree to.

A couple of pro tips: aside from ensuring that you’re in the office on important regular meeting days, you should avoid Friday as your work from home day to be sure it doesn’t look like you’re after three day weekends. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are ideal, because they’re in the middle of the week, and you may often have a lot of tasks and projects coming to a head on these days that you’ll need to focus on for completion.

You also need to go out of your way to make sure your boss understands that your flexible schedule would work both ways; that is, even if you’re scheduled to work from home this Wednesday, you’ll come into the office for an important meeting or check in.

Go the extra mile without being asked and your boss will have no reason to worry about flexibility.

Finally, the best way to prove the value of remote work is to actually work better remotely. That means you’re in regular contact with your team and your boss, whether you’re asking questions or just sending status updates on your projects a couple of times a day.

Over-communicating is important here.

It also means accomplishing a little more than you might at the office, or digging a little deeper. If you finish something early, ask coworkers over chat or phone if they could use your help for an hour. Make yourself available, just as you would in the office, and no one will be left wondering what you do all day.

A dedicated workspace in your home can do wonders for your productivity – it’s hard for anyone to do hard, concentrated work on their sofa with a lap desk.

Let your boss know it worked

As the end of the established trial period approaches, it would be prudent to present your boss with a summary of your remote accomplishments over the past few months.

If you’re sending regular updates, this should be easy to determine.

And no matter how sure you are that you’ll love working remotely, you should be mindful of any loneliness or feelings of isolation, and address them by staying in contact with coworker friends over chat, or scheduling lunches with them once in awhile, especially if you work from home the majority of the time.

Try again

If, after careful preparation and thoughtful presentation, your boss still isn’t having it, don’t be afraid to ask again in a few months. And in the meantime, you could bolster your case by taking a day or two of unscheduled time off and just working from home unasked.

If you can show your boss what the company gets out of it, they’ll be hard pressed to say no.

#Remote

A new trend is emerging as more fast-food restaurants are turning toward senior citizens to join their workforce rather than teens, per Bloomberg.

Walmart has been hiring older workers for years and taking a lot of scrutiny over it, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the labor force is changing.

In the last 30 years of the 20th century, the number of workers aged 55 and older was the smallest segment of the workforce. Around 2003, this group was no longer the smallest share.

Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are now living longer and working longer. The BLS estimates that the number of older Americans who will keep working after the age of 65 will grow by 4.5 percent through 2024. On the other hand, the number of teenagers expected to enter the workforce is expected to drop by 1.4 percent.

Many workers in their prime are decreasing, due to the opioid epidemic, unaffordable childcare, and the incarceration rate, which some experts say is beginning to creating a labor shortage.

In addition, seniors often have soft skills that teenagers just don’t have. After years in any industry, older Americans know how to be on time, deal with customers and navigate the ins and outs of working. Managers have to teach these skills to teenagers entering the job market. For seniors seeking work in fast food, they aren’t typically interested in moving up the corporate ladder.

Financially, it can make sense for a business to hire an older worker over a teenager. A business gets the experience of age without having to pay any more for it.

Would your business benefit?

We recently reported on the litigation regarding the word “overqualified” being a code word for “too old to hire.” There’s also a concern that older Americans will carry a higher cost or not stay in a position for a long time, but it’s time to kick those stereotypes out. The labor force is changing and fast food chains are leading the charge.

Will businesses keep up? Or will employers disregard candidates who will bring much more to the job than just being a body who shows up?