A coworker taking food that would be thrown out
- Kind
- Ethical dilemma
Prompt
You are a shift supervisor at a grocery store. A coworker, who has become a close friend, tells you that she has been taking home bread and produce that the store throws out at closing. Store policy says that all expired food must go in the dumpster, and any employee who takes it can be fired. She says the food would otherwise go to waste, and that she has been sharing it with a neighbor who cannot afford groceries. What would you do?
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How to approach this question
What this question tests
- Professionalism and integrity
- Ethical reasoning
How to approach it
This MMI station tests how you handle a rule you may find wasteful when the person breaking it is your friend and you're her supervisor. Name the competing interests: her job and her neighbor's need, the store's right to set policy, and your own duty as a supervisor. Ask aloud why the policy might exist and whether staying quiet would make you part of the problem. Weigh talking to her privately, raising the policy with management, and proposing a permitted way to donate the food, then decide clearly. Be honest about what your friendship can and can't ask of you. When the station puts a direct question to you from above, explain how you'd weigh honesty with your manager against loyalty to your friend, and commit to an answer.
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