Can You Handle Workplace Dilemma?

• Position: Interpersonal skills evaluation quiz

BY OFFICETEAM

Take this quiz to find out how well you handle workplace difficulties.

You can face career dilemmas in any job and at any stage of your career. It's simply a fact of business life. Knowing how to diplomatically navigate these often unexpected roadblocks can significantly improve your career advancement prospects. In fact, how you handle a sticky situation can put you on the fast track--or take you completely off course.

While several questions contain obvious career predicaments, some are not so obvious. The way in which you react to and manage even trivial events is often a reliable indicator of your behavior in situations that have a bigger impact on your career.

QUESTIONS

1. You've been asked to hire the boss' daughter for the summer. You know her background and skills are not ideally suited to your department, even for a short lime. What do you do?

   1. Approach the boss immediately with your concerns and offer to help the daughter find a different job.

   2. Go to your immediate supervisor and express your concerns.

   3. Ask the boss if you could meet with his daughter before making the decision.

   4. Agree to the arrangement. You don't want to make waves, and besides, you'll gain increased visibility with top management.

2. At a recent meeting among your colleagues and several senior employees, you make what you feel is an innovative suggestion about improving a sales tracking process. One of the higher-ranking employees, Robert, disagrees with your approach and is not shy about saying so. Still, you believe very strongly in your idea and would like to take it to your group's vice president, to whom Robert reports directly. Do you:

   1. Go directly to the vice president and try to get her support for your plan without giving notice to anyone else?

   2. Approach Robert, telling him you understand some of his concerns, but would still like to offer the idea to the vice president?

   3. Give in to Robert to avoid making an enemy of someone senior to you?

   4. Try to argue more convincingly with Robert over the points you believe in, until he eventually sees the wisdom of your plan.

      (3.) You overhear a conversation m your company's gym that an employee you know is about to be fired. What's the first thing you do after learning this information?

   1. Subtly ask the people in the gym for more details.

   2. Approach the employee to give her a heads-up that her job is in jeopardy.

   3. Keep your mouth closed--and bring headphones to the gym next time.

   4. Inform your boss that there are rumors circulating about this employee's fate.

4. You've just assumed responsibility for tracking monthly budget activity and discover that a vendor apparently submitted two invoices for the same project, and was paid for both. This error was made by the...