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Keynote Article: Having some recent experiences with Human Resources departments and with recruiters and executive placement services, I thought an article with a bit of social relevance might be in order. Don’t worry, this also fits into our own concerns in Surveillance and Security.

Little Boxes

by Jim Goding

People make sense of their world by fitting the things they see, observe and interact with, into little boxes. They classify things and people so that they can understand them, put them next to things in other little boxes, and most of all so that they can avoid the work of analyzing everything they see as they see it.

Sometimes this can be taken to extremes. Sometimes things that don’t fit into the little boxes are ignored, other times they are thrown away, and sometimes the things that don’t fit into the little boxes are simply destroyed because they don’t fit together with the other little boxes. When things don’t fit into a person’s little boxes, it tends to make a threat to the way the person thinks about the world, or requires the person to think just a little bit outside of the box.

Many valuable things and ideas might have been lost because they didn’t fit into the little boxes that constituted the way that people thought about things. All human advances in thought, science and technology have occurred because someone didn’t stay within the little boxes–or they stretched the box to fit ideas that were too big for it.

Don’t get me wrong. I use them too. Little boxes are very necessary in my work as a writer, as a consultant, as an evaluator of surveillance and security activities and capabilities, as a trainer. They are necessary to every Surveillance and Security officer: When things don’t fit in the box, they need to be looked at again. Sometimes when many things in one area don’t fit in the available boxes, it is enough to require a full-scale investigation.

The true challenge lies in how we handle things that don’t fit in the little boxes, and this is what makes an investigator, a supervisor, a manager. It is what we do with the things that don’t fit in little boxes that defines how well we do our jobs, no matter whether we work as a dealer, a cashier, a stock clerk, in human resources, in Security or Surveillance, as a manager or executive, or in any number of occupations where we have to deal with people either as groups or individuals.

So, how do people handle things–and people–that don’t fit into their little boxes? Let’s take a look at some different areas as examples, and see the typical ways that people drop things into their own little boxes, but more specifically, how they handle things that don’t fit. While doing this, I will mention a few very valuable things and people that never would have fit into the little boxes that we use today.

Human Resources: Do People Fit the Little Boxes?

Today’s Human Resources environment is far different from what it was when I was a few decades younger, but it still operates in much the same way.

If you don’t fit in the little boxes on the application, the form–and your chances for employment–end up in the trash.

I should note that I have never–in forty-plus years of nearly continuous employment–gotten a job through a “Human Resources” department application from outside the company. I twice got jobs through what was then called “Personnel,” but this was many years ago, in a different world, before all applications were screened through computer database programs. Even then, I got the job through having first contacted the manager of the department, and it was the manager who requested the application be moved through Personnel so that he could hire me. I once got a job through a transfer between departments, but I had the sponsorship of my current manager for the promotion.

You see, I have never fit within the little boxes. That does not mean that I equate myself with any of the examples I have used below. But I have never worked in a place where I failed to pull far more than my own share of the load, where I failed to contribute more than I was actually paid to do. I just didn’t fit in the box, and it was often because the box was just too small. I doubt seriously that I am in any way unique in this. I have known far too many exceptional people who would never fit in a little box on a form.

Human Resources boxes in these times are even more restrictive than in the days when the department was referred to as “Personnel.” Today, you have to fit within ALL of the little boxes, as well as a few that don’t officially exist. I am sure you know what I mean.

If the requirements for a position are “Bachelor’s degree or equivalent,” if you don’t list a college where you graduated, your application goes nowhere but the circular file. If you went to school in the wrong part of the country, or in the wrong country, same thing. You don’t fit the box.

What if, though, through the person’s experience, training, contributions and innovations in his particular part of the industry, he or she has the equivalent of a Master’s degree, but has little actual formal college schooling to show? That means the Human Resources department has thrown away a person who could be an extremely valuable asset to the company, simply because he did not fit in their little box.

Sorry, but the “University of Experience and Hard Knocks and Learn from the Mistakes of Yourself and Others” doesn’t fix the box. Neither do the innovations, experience and contributions to your niche in the industry fit. There is no little box for these in a Human Resources application.

The example that goes with this is the Wright brothers, who designed and built the first heavier-than-air flying craft. They were APPARENTLY a couple of bicycle mechanics. What they really were: natural engineers, who could look at a problem and with little equipment, using only their own knowledge and expertise, design and build the first functioning airplane, despite the fact that few people in those days believed that anything heavier than air could fly. It didn’t fit in the box. Neither did the brothers.

Just think what a Human Resources person of today would think of a person such as Albert Einstein: here is this wild-haired old man with a bushy mustache, doesn’t wear a suit or tie, plays the violin and speaks with a German accent. Would they hire him to, say, run the numbers for a gaming operation? What would his employment application state? “Reason for leaving most recent position: Escaped from Germany, where I was about to be arrested for sedition,” and because he fit into another little box with an ethnic label.

A former President of the United States: Born: Rural Illinois. Education: Home Schooling. Degree: read law, no formal degree. Experience: Farming, fencing, some charity work for the church.

Gives you the idea that there might be a few things to say about this man that don’t fit in the box, doesn’t it? This is the man who now has a 20-foot statue and an entire memorial in Washington DC, dedicated to his memory and the memory of his contributions to the country and to mankind.

Human Resources people should be aware that there are many people who could be extremely valuable contributors to their companies, who might not fit into their little boxes. If people don’t fit the boxes, though, those applications never make it to the manager responsible for hiring.

Unfortunately, today’s Human Resources departments have had to reduce people to a set of numbers: “does or does not fit such and such a box.” There should be a person in every human resources department going through applications looking for people who may have something to contribute, but who don’t fit the boxes. There is very little “human” associated with Human Resources. And to tell you the truth, when things fit the boxes TOO WELL, there is often cause for suspicion. Recent research has shown that over 50% of people lie in their applications and resumes.

There are no boxes in a Human Resources form for honesty, integrity, and willingness to learn and contribute far more than one’s share, simply because most people would be lying if they answered in the affirmative.

In efforts to remedy this problem, HR departments consulted with psychologists who, true to current people-handling form, designed tests to see if a person fit certain personality profiles (little boxes) or could be a “team player.” More little boxes. What happens to the stars (Elway, Berra) when they fill out such a form? They can play with a team and contribute far more than their own weight, but they also rely on their own talents and instincts, and often contribute far more than their own weight in doing so. If Vincent Lombardi honestly filled out an HR “Personality Profile Test” in today’s world (at least the ones I have seen), his application would end up in the round file.

Enough on Human Resources.

Surveillance and Security Little Boxes

As I wrote in one of my earliest articles, one of the methods Surveillance and Security people use is to spot things that just don’t fit.

Guess what: that means  that person down there does not fit into the little box labeled “slot player,” or “recreational blackjack player,” or “correctly trained dealer” or “slots floor person correctly following procedures.”

Now we have to determine what OTHER little box he might fit into: Maybe, through observation of his actions, he will fit into “slot cheat,” “distract and grab,” “short-change con,” or one of the other little boxes we have for people whose actions don’t fit the standard profiles.

Maybe that slots floor personnel who logs into two separate computer terminals before paying a jackpot fits into the box labeled “internal fraud through theft of the supervisor password,” or perhaps “false jackpot fraud,” or some other. Or perhaps he just fits in the box labeled “poorly trained and never corrected.” The point is that some investigation needs to be done. Perhaps we need to make a new box labeled “error.”

Or perhaps he just couldn’t get hold of the shift manager, and for really good customer service he went outside the box and did something the manager should have been there to do. In such a case, some correction may be needed, but in fact the person is doing no harm, especially if he is willing to take responsibility for being outside the box.

How about when watching table games, and a large number of newly hired dealers don’t fit into the box called “already has a year of experience dealing.” In other words, they do things that no trained and experienced dealer should do, such as carelessly exposing hole cards, sticking their hands in their pockets without first clearing, and so on. One such person is an indicator that they may have lied regarding their experience, but when you get a whole bunch of them, you now MUST look outside the “dealer” box, at the people who hired them and who passed them through Human Resources. How come these people don’t fit?

The point here is, it requires investigation. Sometimes things that don’t fit the box are okay, and sometimes they are not.

Sometimes you have to stretch the box to fit.

What you should never do, no matter what, is start modifying people to fit the box. If they don’t fit the box marked “dealer,” don’t add to the person, or cut pieces off, in order to make them fit that box. Perhaps they may fit a bigger box: maybe that dealer is just a little too big for the “dealer” box, and should be in a different position. Maybe they are a bit too small, not really ready for handling people one-on-one when they are drunk and losing, and should be somewhere else.

Or maybe they don’t fit because they are far too crooked to fit in a box.

Thankfully, we in Surveillance and Security are not the ones who have to make these decisions. We simply have to report when something doesn’t fit.

There is a very old story that goes with this. You can look it up on the internet. Use the search term “Procrustes,” and you will find articles that describe a person who forced others to fit his own preconceived ideas. If they did not fit the “bed of Procrustes,” he “adjusted” them to fit. If they were too short, he stretched them. If they were too long, he cut pieces off until they fit.

Take it from me, a person who for decades has had to hide parts that didn’t fit the box: it is a very uncomfortable experience. When you are forced to fit into a box that is too small, it makes less of you than what you really can be.

It is even worse when someone tries to add things to you that are really not true, as I have seen many times. For instance, I personally have never been able to deal with drunks, but this is something I had to do for several years as a casino dealer. I used the opportunity to learn some things, but I never became comfortable with it.

Unfortunately for us, our current society is unable to do much else: Because everything must fit into little computer-screen boxes, if something doesn’t fit, we tend to disregard it or discard it. This is a trap, especially for Surveillance, Security, Human Resources and executives.

Not every person who fails to fit within the box is a crook , a bad guy, or in the case of Human Resources, unqualified. Never presume that just because a person doesn’t fit within one box, he may not fit within a different one, or even a bigger one, or may not fit within a box at all. Investigate. Look. See what it is that makes that person different. Report only the facts, and don’t disregard some facts because they don’t fit your preconceived ideas of what may be happening.

Sometimes you have to modify the box.

Modifying people, or their actions, or especially your reports, in order to make them fit into YOUR BOX is not a viable option.

Jim Goding