“Stress interviews are neither new, nor on their way to extinction,” says Maurice Schweitzer, professor of operations and information management at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite being more common in the US than in other parts of the world, he says the practice has more to do with a certain type of boss than any specific industry.

“It only takes three ingredients to see stress interviews emerge,” Schweitzer says. “Managers who work in a high-stress environment, managers who experience excess demand for jobs in their firm and managers who believe that they can learn how people deal with stress by stressing them out in an interview.”

More harm than good?

Experts are divided on the effectiveness of the traditional stress interview model. Some say there are benefits in simulating a stressful, while still realistic, work incident to identify a candidate’s problem-solving skills. But virtually all agree that using any level of derision and humiliation is unacceptable and outdated.

Corinne Bendersky, professor of management and organisations at UCLA, says there are “much more legitimate interview techniques”, such as asking people about situations that they’ve encountered and how they’ve reacted to stressors that are relevant to their job experience.

Toxic job interviews can be a double-edged sword. Candidates who go through extreme stress tests are given front-row seats to the ugliest side of the company they’re dealing with. They can relay these experiences to other potential applicants, or in Bland’s case create a viral social media post, causing a spiral of negative feedback that damages the company’s ability to attract talent.

A key component here, one that sets the stage for any hostile job interview, is power.

“Managers in these settings are in positions of very high power,” Schweitzer says. “When people have power, they become less likely to take other people’s perspectives, they get less negative feedback… and they may foster an aggrandised perception of how they are doing.” The result is a system of problems created by stress interviews that largely goes unchecked.

“My confidence in applying for jobs was initially knocked by Mr Dean’s comments on my talents and my personality, but now I feel stronger than ever,” Bland says. “I know my worth and won’t take this kind of behaviour from a potential employer.”

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