CASE STUDY: Thready Handwriting of a Hector | Position: Senior Engineer | HR and Management Series | Human Behavior and Handwriting Analysis | Grapholistic International

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Author: S.Sulianah 
S.Sulianah is also a ​Graphologist, HR and Management Consultant (Personality Assessment and Development) and Founder of Grapholistic International

Your Handwritings and Characters Analyst
Grapholistic International
www.grapholistic.com

INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY

What are the factors that you prioritize when recruiting for employees in your company? 

There could be clear or innate expectations that you will look for in an employee doesn’t matter whether you are recruiting fresh from the open market or from recommendations. The candidate should have the characteristics that fits your company’s objectives, with the appropriate work ethics apart from the ability to perform the roles and responsibilities of the position.

I had worked in corporate organisations for 20 years and had the opportunities to observe but  also be a part of the decision-making process in recruiting and managing personnel with the employers and business owners.

The one area in recruitment that I still questioned the effectiveness is the practice when employers recruit an individual based on the recommendations from their friends and acquaintances without analyzing the person’s characters first. Ignoring all the red flags which are obscured by the relationship they have with the person who had made the recommendation. It was like watching your parents take in a stranger into the house and let them stay with you. This is similar to when your employer does the same without knowing the candidate’s background, work ethics, or even asking in-depth questions that means an official job interview. And of course, in this case there is no such thing anymore as decision-making using their intuition. Recruiting decisions were solely by “Let us help my friend’s friend”, “Let us find something for him to do eventually we will get him a suitable position”,  “Oh I trust my friend so this person should be good”. At times, these individuals are not even needed by the company and eventually became a redundant resource. And most of the time, the employees do not fit in the company, become a problematic liability and then the employer and teams will end up in a backwards spiral or trying to save the company’s reputation. 

OBJECTIVE OF CASE STUDY

​This case study’s focal point is one of the many similar examples of A liability that could have been avoided in the first place if you learn from your past mistakes and intuition. It is one of those case studies that I hope employers and business owners should read. I had categorized this case in the negative spectrum. This spectrum is a nightmare of an experience for HR managers, executives, directors and employers as it involves employee’s work performance and most importantly work ethic. The employee in this case study used to work with this company for about 5 years before he was terminated due to his unacceptable behavior towards a client and staff, using words that were unpleasant and unprofessional. 

Profile

​Profile: Senior Engineer. Hector (not his actual name)
Age: 60+ years old
Worked with the company for about 5 years. Was an employee with the company few years back, but his contract were terminated due to his performance and cheating on his overtime reports. 

The following analysis were my personal observation as a HR Executive during the first year of this engineer’s employment. This was about 15 years ago when my boss who is now my ex-employer decided to recruit Hector as a full-time engineer in the company. When my ex-boss informed me of his decision to recruit Hector just because Hector approached him for help of an employment, I had expressed my disagreement and listed down my reasons.

When I first met him I didn’t know the back story of his previous termination with the company so I had relied on my personal impartial observation and analysis. Everything about my analysis of Hector especially my intuition screamed ‘Nope’ and ‘To be careful’. There were tints of This guy cannot be trusted when I was first introduced to him, and I could feel negative energy when he first entered the meeting room. When my ex-boss left me with him to settle the official employment process, he was totally different from before. He was arrogant and clearly acted in a way telling me who was 30 years younger than him that he is the superior one and has all the authority to influence anyone. And again, the uncomfortable energy that I was sensing during that time was actually more than whatever he had showed himself as. My feedback to my ex-boss about my perspectives were totally ignored. Thinking of it later it was not surprising since my ex-boss will usually recruit either his friends or friends’ friends based on his relationships with them. I let him be, however, at my side I interacted with Hector with a lot of precautions.
 
A few months later, there was this an incident that happened when Hector approached me and questioned about his salary. He questioned in an authoritative tone of voice once again how his salary does not fit with the consultation rates that our company had proposed to our client for a project he was involved in. Meaning, why is he getting a salary for example $4,000 per month when the project deal was closed at $350,000. A question that was unexpected. First and foremost is how can a person who kept bragging to his co-workers and employer that he has years of work experiences could not understand how running a business works. Since Hector has arrogance and egoistic in his character, I replied with “You actually have no rights to questioned how much the company charge the client. You had agreed with the salary he offered to you so whatever the company earned is actually none of your business.” I was expecting him to respond to me with another attack, but he turned timid right after that. I reported this case to my ex-boss immediately just in case the story turns to another telenovela if he heard it directly from Hector. Like I mentioned earlier, I had to take extra precautions when dealing with Hector.
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In the first few years of when Hector was on employment with us, I did not use my handwriting analysis (graphology) skills to look into Hector’s handwriting because at that time I wanted to challenge myself to learn to also understand people through their body language, tone of their voice, behavior and also learn to test my intuition and analysis. 

THE TRUSTWORTHY SCALE: Is he a trustworthy engineer?

During the first few years of Hector’s employment, there were evidence of his eat snake attitude. Eat snake is a phrase we use in Asia mainly Singapore and Malaysia which originates from a Hokkien phrase, Jiak Zhua. This means avoiding responsibilities and slacking off from tasks. Other co-workers who had worked  with him in projects had reported to the boss of his eat snake attitude. Reports were not completed, overseas projects that he was assigned by the boss to be the main person of contact ended up haywire.  Not only that they were victims of him whenever he will twist their words and stories for his advantage. Employees management were so bad at the project site he was in that I had to travel overseas to talk to the team members and him. His communication with our client, his co-workers and the company management were terribly unpleasant and not organised. There was an instance that he tried to embarrass our company in front of a client by complaining loudly in the client’s office main area without thinking about our company’s reputation that I had to hit his leg under the table to tell him to shut it up. And there were two instances that because of him, two well performed good employees left the company and another was terminated.

The employee who decided to leave the company had reported to our company that Hector cheated when reporting machines testing results for the project. Instead of siding to this employee, our ex-boss trusted Hector even though there were clear evidences. In terms of work performance and work ethics, I would rate this employee is at 10 while Hector is at 0.1 with a scale of 10 as most reliable and with good performance.

The other case was a tragic story because this employee who was terminated trusted Hector. This employee who also owns an employment agency company which my ex-boss was well aware of had told Hector that when he will be stationed in China with him, he will be taking the opportunities to also look into the market to expand his business. Yes it was a conflict of interest but also he trusted the wrong person to share his plans. So, Hector notified the boss behind his back. And because of that this employee was terminated immediately. Between Hector and this employee, the work performance is also totally incomparable. Hector will be at 0.1 while this employee is at 9.5 but all those again does not matter to the ex-boss in this case apparently.

In terms of trustworthiness, from the personal relationships’ perspectives between Hector and his co-worker, he was well-known as someone who the co-workers will avoid at any cost. From the side of professionalism which is encompassing responsibilities such as writing reports and completing projects, Hector does not fit to be in the scale of the Trustworthy and Reliable Employee category. However for the sake of this case study, I am placing him at 0.1 even though personally I will put him as 0.0. 

APPLYING HANDWRITING ANALYSIS AS A TOOL IN THIS CASE STUDY

​Let us study his handwriting whether he is actually that person that I had just analysed earlier solely based on my observations of his behavior, characters, mindset and work ethics. 

HANDWRITING FORM

Hector’s handwriting form is thready. A wavy thread of connections between letters. This kind of handwriting is considered as cursory and is written with speed. There are words that are indecipherable because of the fast movement of the writing such as work or write? for or fr? airside or forside? Rm or Run?

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS: THE POSITIVE + SPECTRUM

​The positive part of the analysis of someone with a thready handwriting: adaptable in whatever conditions and situations he is in, able to make use of opportunities when he finds fit, diplomacy, with a considerable physical action, and inventive (Cited Nezos R., 2006). 

• Out of all these traits, the one that Hector was always proud to tell everyone in the company is how he could still get married to women 20 years younger than him and still have children with them.
• Adaptability, yes this I could not disagree. Hector was always selected for overseas projects because he has no issues with adapting to the foreign food and environment. Also, his ex-wives were from different countries such as Philippines and Indonesia. So, being able to adapt to unfamiliar environments should not be an issue for him.
• I also agreed with making use of opportunities that he finds fit trait. And he was actually good at using the information which was shared by his co-workers who thought he could be trusted and then use it to manipulate them and the boss.
• Diplomacy probably yes too. He could fit in easily when talking to any levels of people from different culture with his own communication styles.
• Inventive wise, so far based on when he was with the company, there was no evidence to prove this side of him.

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS: THE NEGATIVE SPECTRUM

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The not so positive side of Hector’s personality analysis with reference to his handwriting was traits such as laziness, physical weakness, indecision, impatience, running away from responsibilities, often irresponsible behaviour, instability, dishonesty, deceit, defiance, questionable behaviour, pretense, intrigue, and overcompensation of inferiority complex. (Cited Nezos R., 2006)

• Laziness is evident in terms of Hector’s work performance, productivity, contents, and quality of deliverables. In many situations, he was caught coming in to work 2 to 3 hours late but reported as punctual in his attendance, sneaking out of the projects’ sites, and sleeping during working hours. Other than that, as mentioned earlier, his responsibilities as a project’s team leader or project-in-charge were not exercised as required of him which eventually the company had to mobilize other engineers and project managers to the site to takeover.
  
  
• Remember the previous analysis which highlighted how he will brag and proudly announced to everyone in the company that he still could have children even though he is 60 years old? Are you surprised that the not so positive part of this spectrum also signifies this handwriting to show physical weakness? It also signifies overcompensation of inferiority complex which is visible from his large size capital letters that is not proportionate with the other small letters. So, in this analysis it shows the contrast of the ones he tried to portray to people and what actually he was feeling towards himself. This fits with the phrase The empty vessel made the louder noise.
  
  
• Hector did prove his irresponsible behaviour based on the results of his work such as mentioned earlier, including tendency to cheat and report fraudulent readings on the final reports. This is not only irresponsible, but it is also traits of dishonesty. And when being reported by the other staff, he could twist his words, manipulate and be deceitful to gain support from the boss and HR. As for personal irresponsibility, he did share with us how his children who he had left to his first ex-wife refused to talk to him, seeking for our sympathy. Remarkably, the professional and personal evidence do corroborate well in this analysis.
  
  
• As for pretense and defiance, he portrayed himself as an employee who disagrees with any of the company’s policy does not matter whether it is for the employees’ advantage or not. He is one of those handful who will argued about it behind the boss back, but will say “Yes, you are right, and I support you forever” in front of the boss.
  
  
• Impatience is one of the traits that he accidentally misused and was the main ground of his dismissal. He was impatient and probably his ego boosted him to do whatever he did to one of the staff who unfortunately, our boss trusted more than him. Hector expressed his resentment by using vulgarities to this staff. And because of that this staff decided to lodge an official complain to the boss. I would categorise this staff as more manipulative and had the authoritative advantage because of his personal relationship with the boss. Hector’s last moments after half a decade in the company was when he is finally defeated by someone with similar personality as him but sad to say, had a favourable and superior personal relationship position with the boss than Hector does. 

SOLUTIONS FOR EMPLOYERS

DURING THE INTERVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

1. Be open to observe and listen to your HR advisors, employees and consultants. You employ them to do their job for a reason that is to assist you to manage your company’s personnel. Yes, you are busy with your company and therefore if someone who is more professional with an eye for observing your employees’ characters, behind-your-back behaviour, personality, and work performance, be open to listen and analyse and then do something to improve on it. Do not let small problems sit for years and decades until those negative behaviour of that one employee seeps into the mind of the others and damage your company from within.
   
   
2. If you are owning and have been running your business for years and recruiting people because of your relationships with them, please still perform the same process. Go through those interviews, go through same process like as if you are recruiting them through Jobstreet, JobsDb etc, do background checks with their previous employers, check their criminal records, check their resumes authenticity, be in the interview if you need to and do all those processes that you would do when recruiting strangers.
   
   
3. Yes … your friend recommended that person to you, or you are in debt to your client or acquaintance but remember that your business is your asset and your dreams that you have been building since you were a teenager. Do not sacrifice those for a mere debt, welfare, relationships and just because you are being a supportive friend. Be brave to say No, This person does not fit in my company, I need time to look into it, or be brave to stay away if you do not need that type of person in your company.
   
   
4. When you are part of the interview with your HR, be neutral. Do not be too excited and desperate to recruit that person your friend recommended. Observe the person at all angles and ask questions. Analyse their demeanour, what he says and what he did not. Also most importantly listen to your HR staff who is doing that interview with you. He or she may have more exposure with interviews than you have in your life. So let go of your ego and learn to listen to your instinct and your innate impression of the person, analyse, and decide with the facts in your hand not your emotional attachment to that person or your relationship with the friend. 

WHAT IF YOUR EMPLOYEE HAS A THREADY HANDWRITING?

After understanding an employee through your observations and analysing their personality through their handwriting, what is that one step further that you need to do to solve any issues that could arise? If your employee has the filiform, thready handwriting and they do not use it in a way that will impact your company’s business and your other employees, then leave them be.

However, if you have noticed those traits dominating your employee and negatively impacting your employees who are with good work ethics, good performance and behaviour leaving your company because of this one person’s behaviour, you have to open your eyes and mind to decide logically. For this case study, Hector’s boss was blinded by Hector’s assumed loyalty and let himself be manipulated for 5 years and not forgetting the previous 3 years. When you are running your business, be open to listen to your other employees who would have been giving you feedback about this person over the years. Personal relationships should be set aside when you are managing your business because you will lose the employees who genuinely would like to work hand-in-hand with you to build your company and also for their personal growth.
 
Learn to be self-aware, self-conscious when you observe your employees and make any decisions. Ask yourself the basis of your decision to justify why you are deciding to trust A but not B. Because in a span of as short as one year, your decision to let the good employee go and give someone like Hector to breed in your company, you will not only lose that one good employee, but you are also actually piling doubts in the other employees’ minds because of your favouritism, indecisions, and biasness. And you will keep repeating this same process for years and years, adamant and ended up being stagnant in your personal growth. Eventually 8 years later, the ones who will be left behind with you in your company are all the Hectors. 

References: Graphology Volume I: The Interpretation of Handwriting by Renna Nezos (2006)

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