March 5, 2023

By David Leonhardt

Good morning. Who should work at home, and who should return to the office? Companies are turning to personality tests for help.

Julian Glander

A break-room butterfly

Among the many legacies of the pandemic is a new diversity in work arrangements.

If you want to work in an office five days a week, plenty of jobs still offer that schedule — or require it, in the cases of teachers, E.R. doctors and many blue-collar workers. If you want a hybrid work schedule, you no longer need special permission at many companies; it's the norm. And if you prefer to work from home full time and maybe even live thousands of miles from your colleagues, you can find those jobs, too.

"Covid has opened our eyes to the fact that there are different ways in which we can work," said David Noel, a human resources executive at Scotiabank, a Toronto-based bank with 90,000 employees. Partly for that reason, Scotiabank has begun to put more weight on personality tests, and less weight on résumés, when it makes hiring decisions.

In the post-pandemic era, personality tests seem to have a new relevance. They can help determine who will thrive in which work arrangements and what personality mix can maximize a team's chance of success. Some advocates of the tests argue that they can also increase the diversity of a company's work force by reducing the focus on standards that have traditionally benefited white men. Since Scotiabank began using personality tests more heavily in its campus hiring program, the share of its new employees who are Black has risen to 6 percent, from 1 percent.

My colleague Emma Goldberg, who covers the changing workplace, has written an in-depth article for our Sunday Business section about the new corporate interest in personality tests. In it, she traces their history back to World War I and grapples with some of their weaknesses.

Emma also collaborated with Aaron Krolik, a Times developer, to create a nine-question personality test based on her reporting. The test focuses on workplace dilemmas. "Two traits in particular play a powerful role in shaping workplace behavior: extroversion, the degree to which social interaction energizes someone, and openness, which refers to someone's creativity and appetite for novel experiences," Emma writes. "I designed the quiz with these traits in mind."

I took the test this weekend and discovered that I'm a Break-Room Butterfly — which means I'm collaborative, prefer in-person work and have an easier time with pragmatic tasks than creative ones. That seems fair.

You can find out your type by playing along here.

Continue reading the main story

NEWS

The Latest

Xi Jinping, China's leader, at the National People's Congress today.Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

After a winter of discontent, China promised a post-pandemic recovery and said its economy would expand about 5 percent this year.
Ukrainian forces said they had repelled attacks around Bakhmut, where Russian troops now encircle them from three sides.
Against the odds, old helicopters are helping Ukrainian brigades fight a better equipped adversary.
Nations agreed on language for a U.N. treaty to protect ocean biodiversity, an agreement decades in the making.
Gunmen in military gear killed a provincial governor in the Philippines.
On a visit to Syria, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said American troops were still needed there to counter the Islamic State.

Politics

At the conservative conference CPAC, Donald Trump pledged to stay in the 2024 race even if he was indicted. His campaign is preparing for an ugly primary fight.

Trump asked a federal judge to prevent Mike Pence from testifying to a grand jury.
Fox News angered viewers after it correctly called Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020, prompting executives to question their decision.
The self-help author Marianne Williamson announced her second presidential campaign and called President Biden "a weak choice."
The Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway and the conservative lawyer George Conway are divorcing.

FROM OPINION

A "national divorce" breaking up red and blue states would dislocate millions of Americans and destabilize the globe, David French writes.
Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to weaken Israel's judiciary is bad for the country, bad for business and bad for democracy, says Michael Bloomberg.
The back-stabbing depicted in "Tár" is all too real in classical music, John Mauceri, the film's musical adviser, writes.
More women have become the creative and economic force in their marriages. Still, the perfect wife ideal persists, Jessica Grose writes.

The Sunday question: Does it matter whether Covid leaked from a lab?

Covid's origin matters for national security and public health, and investigating it pushes China to be more transparent, The Washington Post's Josh Rogin writes. Yet we'll probably never know the truth, says Vox's Umair Irfan, and we can prepare for future pandemics without settling the debate.

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MORNING READS

A 3-D rendering of Notre Dame.Mika Gröndahl and Yuliya Parshina-Kottas/The New York Times

Cathedral of sound: Researchers are working to restore Notre Dame's lost acoustics.

"Premiumization": Is the entire economy gentrifying?

Middle row: Movie theater owners are shifting ticket prices based on showtimes and seat locations.

Vows: They reconnected on a night in Madrid.

Sunday routine: A makeup artist surrounds herself with pillows when she wakes up.

Advice from Wirecutter: Don't bother dry-cleaning wool sweaters.

Lives lived: Tom Sizemore was an actor in "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down" who also struggled with substance abuse. He died at 61.

Continue reading the main story

BOOKS

The temple of Abu Simbel.Keystone-France, via Getty Images

"Empress of the Nile": The woman who gave Indiana Jones a run for his money.

New Canon: Overlooked African American writers are finding fame on Instagram.

A.I. novelists? Famous human authors consider whether chatbots will take their jobs.

By the Book: On vacation, the NPR host Ari Shapiro likes books that feel "effortlessly acrobatic."

Our editors' picks: "A Hacker's Mind," which argues that anybody who manipulates a system for benefit is a hacker, and eight other books.

Times best sellers: Lucy Score's "Things We Hide From the Light" debuted at No. 1 on the paperback trade fiction list.

THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE

Alec Soth/Magnum, for The New York Times

On the cover: Louisville's police department is in crisis.

Recommendation: The eerie poetry of gravestones.

Health care: A revolutionary stroke treatment will save millions of lives, but access is a challenge.

Eat: This 15-minute pasta will make you feel like an Italian millionaire.

Read the full issue.

THE WEEK AHEAD

What to Watch For

Biden will visit Selma, Ala., today to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, law enforcement officials' brutal attack on civil rights marchers in 1965.
Top national security officials will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about worldwide threats.
A House subcommittee that Republicans created to investigate the origins of Covid will hold its first hearing on Wednesday.
The Senate health committee, led by Bernie Sanders, will vote Wednesday on whether to subpoena Starbucks' chief executive, Howard Schultz, over union-busting allegations.
Biden unveils his budget on Thursday. It will include a plan to pay for increasing Medicare, Social Security and health care costs by raising taxes on the wealthy.
The monthly U.S. jobs report will be released on Friday.
President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain will meet on Friday.
The South by Southwest music and culture festival opens on Friday in Austin, Texas.
Daylight saving time in the U.S. begins at 2 a.m. next Sunday, March 12.

What to Cook This Week

Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

A trip to Miami has Emily Weinstein ready for spring. Her recipe picks share that vibe: pasta with fresh herbs, lemon and peas (don't skimp on the herbs); salt and pepper tofu with a gorgeously crisp crust; and roasted fish and broccolini.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

The pangrams from yesterday's Spelling Bee were mezzotint and monetize. Here is today's puzzle.

Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Popular Greek cheese (four letters).

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week's headlines.

Here's today's Wordle.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — David

Read today's front page.

Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.