Crazy but true anecdote. I interviewed with this company for a DevOps-type position. My would-be manager spent his time with me talking about "the birds and the bees", and quipping that prisoners smuggle cell phones in their butt. The only question of his that I specifically remember is what video games do I play. I held it in, went home, and declined their offer. The recruiter told me that I was too sensitive, and ignored me about travel expense reimbursement for months, until I contacted their head of HR (guessing the address). I just checked and that would-be boss is now a senior manager of security engineering there. Not blaming him, but I do feel like Trinity dodging ten agents right now.
There was a flagged comment here that thought this manager's interviewing strategy was a good idea.
In this world, bosses end up holding power over their underlings. A boss who uses this power capriciously is tyrannical. A leader should use their power to achieve the shared mission of him and his followers, not arbitrarily.
There's a time and a place for ribaldry, and an interview isn't one. Generally those are optional situations that people can avoid if they don't want to hear it. This, and other sorts of 'tests' that some bosses use in interviews to test for 'thick-skinnedness' is equivalent to seeing if an underling will tolerate arbitrary abuses of power. It's equivalent to a test for absolute loyalty and servility, to see if the underling will be a yes man.
If a leader crosses a line for no good reason, perhaps by cracking a too risque joke, he or she should apologize and tone it down. It's about using your power responsibly and respecting your employees as you will have them respect you.
As a current prisoner, I'm not sure this guy had it right. It's usually the guards that supply cellphones and they just bring them in pockets or bags. Or nuns. I had a nun smuggle in a C# book with accompanying CD-ROM.
Drugs often travel in your "prison pocket", but I've never heard of anyone jamming a cellphone up there.
Luckily, before I went to jail, I had been given this book, the knowledge of which proved useful inside:
Reminds me of the Panera executive who got upset (seemed to be confused) when a security researcher wanted to exchange keys…. dude thought it was a scam / sales tactic.
