It is illegal today to use DNA testing for employment, but as science advances its understanding of genes that correlate to certain desirable traits -- such as leadership and intelligence -- business may want this information.
People seeking leadership roles in business, or even those in search of funding for a start-up, may volunteer their DNA test results to demonstrate that they have the right aptitude, leadership capabilities and intelligence for the job.
This may sound farfetched, but it's possible based on the direction of the science, according to Gartner analysts David Furlonger and Stephen Smith, who presented their research at the firm's Symposium IT/xpo here. This research is called "maverick" in Gartner parlance, meaning it has a somewhat low probability and is still years out, but its potential is nonetheless worrisome to the authors.
Businesses could also weed out people with diabetes, heart defects, and any other congenital defects that can lead to absenteeism.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:33AM
It's a woman's world, and sex change is futile! Your DNA will disqualify you.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Thursday October 20 2016, @11:33PM
It's mostly Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) who feel that way. Most feminists I've met welcome trans* people. In fact, will excoriate you for not respecting gender diversity as a major leg of the stool of intersectional feminism (the other two legs being race and orientation). TERFs really epitomise everything that is wrong with contemporary feminism.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:54AM
We'll finally find out how avian The Mighty Buzzard is.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @10:43AM
Sticking buzzard feathers up the butt does not make a buzzard.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:38PM
Oh, great. There goes my Halloween costume you insensitive clod.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:58AM
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @10:15AM
if we could turn all clits into penises we could finally tell women to go fuck themselves for real
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @10:30AM
There's a series of novels about the concept. Wraeththu [wikipedia.org]. They take every opportunity to fuck each other.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday October 20 2016, @11:56AM
As best as we can tell, leadership and intelligence capabilities are not primarily genetic. There are some incredibly smart people that reproduced and their kids turned out to be not all that smart. Ditto for many fantastic leaders, as many a monarchy has learned the hard way. And conversely, some of greatest leaders had relatively humble upbringing suggesting that their parents weren't all that great of leaders, and some of the smartest people in history had not-particularly-bright parents and siblings.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:00PM
The child gets a random 50% from parent 1 and another random 50% of parent B.
If the desired qualities are represented in a very small part of dna; or in the absence of that part; it's pretty easy to get dumber or smarter kids.
However, if you start selecting for these kinds of things, you may also end up with a single minded view of how to do things in entire sectors.
A good movie covering this topic is gattaca http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ [imdb.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:09PM
As best as we can tell, leadership and intelligence capabilities are not primarily genetic.
That's true. But the broader question is -- even if some capabilities DO have a proven genetic correlation, why are we so focused on a deterministic outlook? Shouldn't businesses be more interested in what you can actually DO (now), rather than what your genes said you might be capable of when you were born decades ago?
This story sounds like some HR person looking at a resume from someone with a 25-year career, major accomplishments, well-known name in the field, and throwing it into the trash because, "Gee, this guy got his undergrad degree from a state school?? Obviously people like that can't do as well in the world as some of these other candidates with better pedigrees."
Most businesses care about what you've been doing lately. Your college degree may be important for getting your first job or two, but 25 years into your career, does it really matter where you went to school? Or would most businesses care more about what you've actually done in your previous jobs for the past 5 years?
In the same way, trying to use genetics to find leadership and intelligence in adults seems ridiculous. There are oodles of studies that show that environment has a huge affect on intelligence outcomes for kids, and if you're looking for a "leader," why not look and see whether this person has actually taken initiative or served as a leader in what he/she has done in the past few years? To go even more extreme, there are loads of examples of people who have overcome significant disabilities (physical, mental, etc.) and become very successful in life. Are you going to reject an applicant because his/her genetic profile says that that success is statistically unlikely, or would you actually value that candidate EVEN MORE because of the determination shown to achieve?
I have to agree with the last sentence of the summary -- if this actually were to become legal, it would be more likely to be used by businesses to weed out candidates who might get sick or cost more for health reasons or something, rather than to find "leaders" or "smart people."
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:26PM
Don't get me wrong: I think this is a terrible idea for lots of other reasons. I'm just pointing out that even if it weren't terrible for other reasons, its stated reasons don't even make the slightest bit of sense.
And I agree completely that the real purpose of this is to screen out employees that are likely to have health problems. Yet another entry under "reasons the US health care system is completely insane".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday October 20 2016, @05:03PM
This story sounds like some HR person looking at a resume from someone with a 25-year career, major accomplishments, well-known name in the field, and throwing it into the trash because, "Gee, this guy got his undergrad degree from a state school?? Obviously people like that can't do as well in the world as some of these other candidates with better pedigrees."
This sounds EXACTLY like what an HR department would do. HR departments are well known to roundfile resumes based on unimportant requirements that were never requested by the manager that requested the job posting.
Laws will need to be quite sure to ban the practice entirely. Otherwise, potential employees who know their genetic profile will meet HR standards (even if that has nothing to do with actual suitability) will happily volunteer for the test and HR departments will presume anyone who doesn't volunteer would have failed the test anyway.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday October 21 2016, @02:10PM
Yep, that was my point precisely. HR departments do stupid stuff in hiring. TFA also sounds like it would do stupid stuff in hiring. HR would love it. Q.E.D. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:53PM
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:33PM
Leadership is the sales pitch. Pedigree is what you are really buying.
As it is, most people are underutilized in any organization and "leadership" is the newest in a long list of management fads. Sure, it might be nice if your janitor has leadership skills, but it's not like they are going to have much opportunity to use them, now is it?
However, you can keep the riff-raff at the door and have a nice cover for why your organization is 90% WASP. It will certainly make your diversity events a lot easier to handle.
The bigger question is just how intrusive employment should be, and exactly what are they buying for that wage? It started going downhill with employment piss tests (bet you can't guess which groups those primarily affected), and has really ramped up with my employer now forbidding procuring legal prostitution (not that I had any inclination, but what an odd pronouncement to make) and tut-tutting any indication of being an adult like imbibing regularly ("because, you know, insurance reasons").
But if you want to gorge yourself on sugar-coated lard sticks, knock yourself out.
Of course if you ask how much your boss makes so you can gauge the financial stability of an organization, you'll find out that information gathering only goes one way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @03:31PM
As best as we can tell, leadership and intelligence capabilities are not primarily genetic.
So that's why all animals have the same intelligence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @10:59PM
As best as we can tell
We can't tell, since we barely understand intelligence at all. The idea of IQ being a good measure of someone's intelligence is, at best, unproven and overly simplistic.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:03PM
What happens when they realize the problem with this idea?
"It says here that you have an 82% chance if being a good manager".
"It also says that you have an 82% chance of being a raving psychopath".
Five job interviews later...
"Well, that's interesting. It's like "good manager" and "raving psychopath" is the same number.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:05PM
Maybe it is the exact same genes that influence this single trait, and we just give this trait two different names for some reason.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:07PM
If jobs become a luxury expect people to get always a bit lower to get one. Yesterday it was your FB account, today the DNA, tomorrow your daughter's ass.
The current system is pushed to its own destruction, and the real leaders know it. I wonder what they have in store for us next.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:32PM
I made the decision to not have kids many years ago (variety of reasons). News articles like this, which I didn't foresee back then, only reinforce my decision. I'd hate to have young kids or grand kids now who faced this sort of screening as part of a job application.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:07PM
That's a pity, because the bond between a parent and child is really the closest thing to pure love we can experience in this life.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:08PM
> the bond between a parent and child
I got that bit OK -- my mother is still alive, my father lasted to 101 and we all worked together quite happily in the family business. But I had little desire to see it from the other side.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:11PM
From a robotically academically metaphorical point of view, I argue a cat's love towards a mouse would be more pure, compared to the love for his own kittens, because it transcends biological bonds and barriers.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @07:55PM
That's some vomit-inducing shit right there, normie.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:23PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:15PM
That's crazy talk.
The American ideal of business is that you don't have to do any work, and revenue just keeps coming in forever.
Some concepts in law actually embody this idea. Copyrights and Patents. For example, write a song once and you and your grandchildren never have to work again. While a factory worker builds something and doesn't get a perpetual revenue stream for some reason.
Or try this. Build an OS. Then just duplicate CD-ROMs cheaply to keep getting revenue. Improve this by having OEMs pre-install it for you, so you do nothing.
Or patent rectangles with rounded corners. (Circles are a special case of this, and thus covered by the patent.)
You take a drug developed by NHS, do clinical trials and get approval to market, then set outrageously high price. Then keep evergreening it for perpetual ever lasting revenue. Buy old out of patent drugs, be the exclusive manufacturer, and set outrageously high prices.
Plenty more examples exist of this thinking. Banksters. Junk bonds. Enron style stock fraud.
The idea that you have to keep working to keep earning seems like a relic of the past (to some people). I wonder if they teach this in business school or something?
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:09PM
You can have my DNA when you wrest it from my cold, dead penis.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 20 2016, @03:42PM
Unfortunately, the conspiracy to procure dandruff is well under way and having good results. Soon your DNA will be [4th directive triggered, logout forced]
Oh wait I am still here. What if... I have been systemd infected?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by stretch611 on Friday October 21 2016, @04:40AM
You can have my DNA when you wrest it from my cold, dead penis.
--
Don't eat stuff of the sidewalk - Lux Interior
How appropriate your comment is with that sig.
If i every see your body in a cold dead heap, i will be sure to not even step on the sidewalk covered in your "DNA" :D
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:20PM
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:55PM
Sounds like a solution in search of a sucker to buy it. A Gartner report is marketing collateral for whoever is pushing this pseudoscience.
Besides, who needs it? Jobs either require professionals who have a track record so you know what you're getting, or are struggling to find anyone at all who will show up. Several places I go have elderly employees who are the only ones who show up and work, and when they kick the bucket .... the places will probably just go kaput. I almost can't help but laugh at the young white-shirt-wearing "managers" in some establishments who look busy, walking around, getting in the way, but never actually do anything.
I can't imagine a lot of these establishments having a warm-blooded applicant come apply not hiring the person on the spot. The only test they'll do is if the person has a pulse. Are they really going to reject an applicant based on some pseudoscience? I'd like to see that happen. If they could get a few months out of someone before their heart attack, some places I've been would be thrilled.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:40PM
> Sounds like a solution in search of a sucker to buy it. A Gartner report is marketing collateral for whoever is pushing this pseudoscience.
Gartner is like the Rating Agencies, just a marketing tool used to promote a product.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:21PM
Epigenetics
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:24PM
It's true today as it was thirty five years ago. A freshman class of computer science wanna bees. They can learn all the statements of a language. But they have no idea how to put them together to form a coherent program. They can't think logically. They can't formulate a plan for how to mechanically crunch through as the machine turns the crank and produce a desired result.
If you can develop a DNA test that accurately filters them out, then fine.
But their own inability should be enough. Too bad HR can't figure this out.
If you suddenly realize you've grown up and find you have no useful skills or talent, THERE IS a job for you.
Marketing.
Or Management. Or Politics.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mendax on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:57PM
DNA can be obtained from many sources. A cheek swab is the most common method. However, I propose another source. DNA should be taken from shit samples. For myself, any employers who want a DNA sample from me are going to get from me in that manner, but as a monkey in the zoo presents one to visitors. Perhaps I should legally change my name to Hu Phlung Dung.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday October 20 2016, @05:33PM
Like sociopathy, I presume. Businesses may find that they in fact do not want this information, the same way that they don't want negative press or negative audit results.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:37PM
I got good performance reviews as well as regular raises.
I was one of two manic-depressives on our small team. Our manager knew who we both were, but no one else did, until I confided my mental illness to a the other mentally ill team member.
Just Sayin'
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @03:24AM
> until I confided my mental illness to a the other mentally ill team member.
That's crazy talk--if no one knew, how did you select the other m-d to confide in?