Employment: how your astrological sign can play in your (dis)favor when recruiting

“Oh no, are you a Capricorn?? It’s going to be complicated then…”. This little valve between colleagues on astrological compatibility, we have all heard it before. She made us smile, she relaxed the atmosphere. But if this reflection intervened during a job interview ?

According to an article by 20 minutesastrology would be part of the criteria for some employers: 5% of recruiters acknowledge that they take into account the candidate’s astrological sign for a job, according to a study by Oasys dating from 2007. Worse: some announcements have already been published mentioning the astrological signs wanted for a job. This was the case in Austria in 2009, and in China in 2011. Imagine: “This position is only open to Libra and Virgo”. Unthinkable. And yet, this pattern of thought would not only be the prerogative of recruiters : Frédérik Cousin, recruitment expert, confides to their microphone having seen interview “candidates who asked for the sign of their potential future manager”. Surrealist.

On the same subject ⋙ Investigation: morphopsychology, this pseudo-science that is doing damage even in recruitment firms

The search for zero risk

How to explain the appeal to these dubious recruitment methods ? It is difficult for employers to make a good choice among the hundreds of applications sometimes received for a position, all the more so since the pandemic has systematized remote video interviews and made it more difficult to appreciate social qualities: “With confinements, digitization and videos, there are few ways to really know a candidate. Astrology remains a trail like any other…” entrusts an HR to the media 20 minutes.

Some recruiters push the vice even further, and do not hesitate to resort to other practices that are esoteric to say the least: the recruitment of one in ten executives would thus be decided after consulting an astrologer, a graphologist or a numerologistaccording to a study by the Bordeaux-II psychology laboratory in 1993. Employers prefer the interpretation of the birth chart or graphological analysis to the detriment of psychological tests, which are more expensive.

Practices decried, but not illegal

These recruitment criteria, which fall under discriminatory practicesare not however not forbiddenbut simply pointed out by the Labor Code which considers “inappropriate to resort to methods with random results, such as astrology, numerology, or even graphology, whose predictive validity from the point of view of suitability for use is by no means established”, according to circular DRT 93-10.

If the figures for these recruitment methods are not overwhelming, it can be assumed that the data collected is probably below reality : not only by virtue of the taboo aspect of the subject, but also because interest in astrology exploded in 20 years : 41% of French people said they believed in it in 2020i.e. 8 points more than in 2000 according to an Ifop poll.

Read also
⋙ Astrology fans are more narcissistic according to a study
⋙ Which Zodiac Sign Believes in Astrology the Most?
⋙ Toxic Job: Signs That Show You Shouldn’t Apply For This Job

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