About Job Interview and Application Questions: Part2

Have you ever have a disagreement with a co-worker or superior?

Trick Question?

  Does anyone answer this “No” who is not applying for their first job? And if they do, do Human Resources and/or the management believe it? Seriously, human beings have disagreements, its part of our nature. And since we are all individuals with different experiences we are going to answer this question in different ways so there is really no one right answer. And saying no may make you look suspicious. This question is supposed to give the interviewer an insight into your “Emotion I.Q.” and will help them decide if you will work out well with the other members of the team.

Different Situations

   Some situations can be handled by just sitting down with the person and talking it out. If you’re like me you’ll need to take a little time first to think about the disagreement, I might be over reacting, or I’ll try looking at it from different angles. Sometimes, after doing this I realize that we don’t need to talk it, but I just might need to apologize. You can also ask the other person to show you what they mean because the problem could very well be a matter of miscommunication. Of course, there are times when you feel none of these options will work, maybe you feel a bit intimidated by the other person, if so, get help. It can really help to get a third person involved whether it’s a co-worker, someone from HR, or your boss. These people are seeing things from the outside, a completely different perspective, and you may find out that you and the other person involved in the disagreement are both wrong. You can also have an impromptu brainstorming session with co-workers, including the one you are disagreeing with, for a solution. I have used all of these approaches and they have worked well.

   There have been times when I’ve had to combine the options mentioned above. For example, I was designing the physical layout of a printed circuit board for one of the design engineers where I worked. He looked over what I had done and wanted me to make some changes, I worked on the changes until I came to a point where I couldn’t do what he wanted and I told him so. He took another look and said it was because I had done one section wrong. I reminded him what he had said (I had written his instructions down) and he replied “that’s not what I meant”. Okay, he gave me clearer instructions and I still had some problems so I asked him to come over. We worked together and still couldn’t do what he wanted, so I asked my two co-workers, each had 2 decades of experience on me, if they had any ideas. Working together we came up with a solution to the problem, it wasn’t exactly what the engineer wanted but it would work.

   There have been other situations when other steps had to be taken. We’ve all heard and/or seen news articles of people out of control. There is one incident that happened where I was working about 15- 20 years ago. I was an assembly-tech at the time, that’s a person who builds prototypes and special units per the engineers and then tests them. I worked in manufacturing next to the regular assemblers. The company had hired some contract workers for the area I was in. One young man seemed a little odd at first, but nothing really unusual. After a couple of weeks, people were avoiding this young and his behavior got worse. He wasn’t a very big person, but he was taller than some of the Hmong ladies working there. One day I found one of the ladies in tears and she told me she was scared to go back out to work. I went over to the area and the other women were kind of huddled together and this young was yelling and threatening them. The supervisor and managers were at the main business unit for a meeting. I told the man to stop but he just continued to rant. Fortunately, I was taller and a bit heavier than he was otherwise things might have turned out differently. I picked up a tool off the table and slammed it down hard on a clear space on the table far away from everyone. The noise made the young man jump, and when he looked at me I said as sternly as I could to stop it. He went back to work still ranting but very quietly. When the supervisor and managers came back we told them what had happened. We didn’t see that young man again. Turns out, he has a problem and needs to be on medication which he had stopped taking.

   Would I give this last example to an HR interviewer? I probably would not. But the first example I wrote, yes I would.

Conclusion

   Think about this question a lot so that you can give an honest answer with a good, short example or two. You don't need to tell the interviewer every situation or in great detail. Remember, lying really does not make you look good. If you do happen to be a little hot tempered like I sometimes am, work on learning to control it and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you feel a situation is getting out of control. And don’t get upset when someone disagrees with you, maybe they’re just having a bad day. Or maybe you are. In other words, wait, think and try to act positively instead of reacting negatively.