I suspect it may be worse than you have captured here. I have witnessed my supervisors googling people and throwing away applications based on their Facebook activity. I don't know what to call that. It's not a social statement if a person doesn't know their political or social ideas are blocking them from being hired- and I think it's against the law- but it happens.

Also, more and more companies are using personality profiling as a way to hire people. I tend not to pass these tests, because I over think subjective questions and end up in the 'wrong' pile. I fail these, and I have a master in counseling, and know how these metrics work!

Everywhere I have work I have been recognized for my strong work ethic. What makes this one funny, though, is I dated someone who worked in HR at the community hospital I applied to and didn't hear back from because I didn't fit their 'profile.' The HR people who used to make the determination on who gets hired were told they no longer have the authority to over-ride the profiling metric after interviewing a candidate. The company that made the metrics has determined this is the best employee- even though HR has consistently had to fire people that fit the profile, and the people that didn't fit who were hired before HR were told not to hire outside the established parameters- are still employed and considered exemplary employees.

Contrary to popular belief, hiring people that kiss ass tend to be better at manipulating systems and ruining services than people who speak their minds, but get the job done.