I'm Baffled

I thought it would be a good idea for me to sign up with a temporary staffing agency as part of my job search. A lot of times, they have clients looking for "temp-to-hire" employees, who start out as temps then, if all goes well, become permanent employees.

So, today, I did just that. Filled out some paper work. Took some skills assessments. My scores were all in the above-average range, which pleased me since I've been out of the office environment for more than five years.

Then I had to take an assessment to see where and how I'd fit into certain job situations.

The questions were similar to these:

Most people will slack off a little when the boss is away.
- Agree entirely.
- Agree somewhat.
- Undecided.
- Disagree somewhat.
- Disagree entirely.

Everyone will take a few extra minutes at lunch if they feel they can get away with it.
- Agree entirely.
- Agree somewhat.
- Undecided.
- Disagree somewhat.
- Disagree entirely.

If there is an emergency in the workplace, I always contact a supervisor first.
- Agree entirely.
- Agree somewhat.
- Undecided.
- Disagree somewhat.
- Disagree entirely.

Ok. The part that hangs me up on these is the use of qualifiers -- most, always, everyone, a little. Because I take these so literally, I can never agree/disagree entirely. I also don't feel I should lie about things I think are human nature to do, such as slack off a little when the boss is out.

And I have no idea what my reaction would be in an emergency; I suppose it would depend on whether the copier ran out of toner in the middle of a rush job, or if the copier fell over on a co-worker and was crushing the air out their lungs.

Thus, I end up with a lot of answers marked as "undecided" and a few marked in the "somewhat" range.

Somehow, because of those answers, I am considered very low on reliability. Low as in 10th-percentile-low. My "reliability liability" isn't based on past performance, attendance, punctuality or job history. It's based just on these hypothetical, rather abstract questions.

I guess I shouldn't be bothered by it, but I am a little. I know I'm not the "perfect employee", but I don't agree that I'm less reliable than 90% of the people they test. I question how accurate their assessment is. Or whether I got my agrees and disagrees mixed up and skewed the results myself.

I was told it wouldn't keep me from being placed. I guess we'll see.