Employment Interview Questions

Tell me about a time when a co-worker was not shouldering their fair share of the work load.

This is one of those behavioral interview questions designed to find out how much initiative you take to solve problems within your group.

Most companies today operate pretty lean. This means everyone must pull their own weight, or the rest of team has to pick up the slack.

Complaining to your manager is a cop out. In most cases, minor behavior problems can be resolved without involving the manager.

This is the essence of this question.

In other words, what initiative have you taken in the past to resolve behavioral issues in the workplace?

By the way--if you are ever asked employment interview questions like this, and it's never happened to you before, it's ok to just say so.

But, you definitely will score points if you can share a situation.

Examples to help jog your memory:

• someone who was habitually late
• someone who routinely missed deadlines affecting your work performance and other team members
• someone who made lots of careless errors requiring rework
• someone who took credit for other people's work or ideas
• someone who took a lot of personal phone calls
• someone who took extra long lunch hours and coffee breaks
• someone who plunked themselves down in your space and was overly chatty

Be careful not to share a situation that is petty or too personal in nature. It should be a work related annoyance.

The typical reaction to a sub-par team member is to complain about this person behind their back. Often times resentment towards management also builds as team members don't understand why their manager isn't doing something about it.

These negative feelings eventually boil over until someone says something ugly to this person, creating even more tension and hard feelings.

Finally, someone complains to their supervisor about it...usually not in a very diplomatic tone.

Everyone loses in this scenario.

Companies don't want this kind of drama in the workplace. So, they ask employment interview questions to identify team players who will contribute to a positive work environment, and take the initiative to solve problems on their own...without being overbearing or controlling.

True Story

Brian was definitely an extrovert and always seemed to have a new joke to share. He was definitely a guy you would enjoy sharing a drink with after work.

Only one problem.

Brian would pop into your cubicle and talk your ear off...unless you somehow figured out a way to cut him off, and point him in the direction of his own cube.

No easy task.

One day over lunch, 2 team members mentioned Brian's annoying habit to Jeff. Jeff told them he use to have the same problem with Brian until he came up with a simple way to take control of the situation without offending him.

Please...do tell...they pleaded.

Whenever Brain would stroll into Jeff's cubicle, Jeff would look up and say something like this:

Oh, hello Brian. Hey, I'd love to chat with you, but I am really under the gun today. I have 2 minutes to chat...and then I MUST dive into my day, or I'll be here all night. So, make this quick...

Basically what Jeff did was to immediately take control of this impromptu meeting, and set a firm deadline. It then was easy to interrupt Brian when he ignored the time limit, and tell him it was time to leave.

This worked like a charm and was a win-win-win.

Jeff won because he stayed in control of his day. Brian won because he ran out of places to chat and spent more time doing his job.

And...the company won because everyone was more productive without an ugly confrontation or a bunch of hard feelings.

Do you see the power of a story like this in responding to employment interview questions dealing with human nature?