I came across this on the BBC website. It tells how a university graduate, Alan Bacon, applied for a job with Currys. Instead of being able to demonstrate 
why he’d be good in the photographic department in the interview, he was made to dance to a pop song.
Currys has apologised, and claims that it was not part of its official interview procedure.
Of course it wasn’t. But as the article points out – and many readers will probably have seen it anyway – this kind of idiotic “interviewing” was used in the recent fly-on-the-wall documentary series, The Call Centre.
Something frighteningly similar even happened to me once. It was part of the big Teamworking rollout in the early 90s, and the managers and team leaders were on a compulsory week-long residential course at a hotel in Sherwood Forest. The course facilitators were the usual bunch of extrovert prats, and one day we were told that there was “a forfeit” for something we were supposed to be doing that day – which was to put on a play for the hotel staff. It was no surprise to discover that we subsequently had to pay the forfeit.
I remember saying calmly: “Let me explain something. I have a phobia of acting, so I’m telling you now I’m not doing it. I’ll do stuff backstage, I’ll help to organise it, but I am NOT going to perform in front of people. And that’s final.”
This opened the flood gates. One of my team leaders was nearly in tears over the possibility of having to do it – and was ready to punch one of the facilitators (I had to restrain him). None of the others were keen, either. Only my opposite number on the other shift was almost wetting himself over the prospect, but he was a recent graduate, and dressing up (ideally in drag) was something he missed desperately. The play never went ahead.
Even as long ago as the mid-80s the typical management course would involve “ice-breaking exercises”. Indeed, the very first graduate course I went on involved such an exercise, where we had to lie on the floor and others drew around our heads to get a profile. These were then hung on the wall (using Blu-tac, of course) for the duration. But there were dozens of others over the years. Even my time in technical support for another division of the same group Currys is part of – while I was training as an ADI – required throwing sponge balls around. And First Aid training also involved similar stunts.
In the case of Alan Bacon, Currys offered him another interview with the apology. He wisely turned them down – but I think he still might have a few unpleasant surprises coming his way as he embarks upon his working life.
Currys reckons it is dealing with the idiot staff responsible. I’ll bet they still have jobs at the end of it.