Here’s another reason why breakfast might be the most important meal of your day.

A CEO’s “manipulative” job interview tactic has people divided — as he insisted, “Life is like that.”

Walt Bettinger, who served as the CEO of Charles Schwab from 2008 until retiring at the end of last year, revealed the situation he would orchestrate to observe people’s behavior.

In a resurfaced interview with the New York Times, he shared some of the tactics he used to determine a person’s character when considering job applicants.

The big boss shared that when he asked an interviewee about their greatest success he paid close attention to their answer to determine if “their view of the world revolves around others or whether it revolves around them.”

Then asking the opposite, the CEO would listen to hear if the person would blame others or own to their mistakes.

Sometimes the most orchestrated part of the interview would come before everyone had even finished their coffee.

Bettinger shared that some days he would schedule breakfast meetings and order the servers to mess up his guest’s order for a good tip to test if the person would scramble or boil over when their eggs were served incorrectly.

“Life is like that, and business is like that. It’s just another way to get a look inside their heart rather than their head,” Bettinger explained.

“We’re all going to make mistakes. The question is how are we going to recover when we make them, and are we going to be respectful to others when they make them?”

The leader added that questioning and testing job candidates in these ways helped him hire the best candidate because he’s “most concerned with the kind of person they are, their character.”

Several years after the NY Times interview was published, it went viral in tweets resurfaced in the Daily Mail.

The X user argued that bosses could reach the same conclusion without messing with their interviewees but simply by watching how they interact with the waiter.

“Observing how people treat people who don’t have social status is very important and revealing of character,” they insisted.

Others catastrophized the possible outcomes of the “manipulative” tactic noting how dangerous messing with someone’s food could be — especially if they have allergies.

Someone else added that if they learned of the scheme they would assume the employer would continue “playing mind games” throughout their time working for them.

However, Bettinger isn’t the only boss who’s admitted to putting their possible employees in situations to observe their behavior.

In a resurfaced Reddit thread, asking hiring managers to reveal the “special tests” they put interviewees through “without their knowing,” one respondent said their hiring manager uses a “water” test.

“They put a jug of water with a cup out to see if anyone would drink it while being interviewed,” the person shared.

“I was the only person who drank the water at a ‘normal pace’ during the interview, and this is seen as being ‘confident in the workplace environment by accepting a gift or offer,’” they explained, adding that their “normal pace” was taking a sip after answering each of their questions.

“Apparently, you can tell a lot about a person from the way they refuse the offer of the water or by drinking it too fast.”

Other hiring managers revealed they secretly tested job candidates by taking them to lunch and observing how fast they chose a menu item or how enthusiastic they were about their hobbies.