Promoted to manage your closest coworkers
- Kind
- Practical scenario
Prompt
You have worked as a server at a busy restaurant for two years, and your three closest friends there are servers too. The owner promotes you to floor manager. You will now set the schedule, assign sections and report on staff performance. Your friends congratulate you. Then one of them, Marcus, asks you for the Friday and Saturday evening shifts, which earn the most in tips, because he is saving for a move. Two other servers who have worked there longer have also asked for those shifts. Your friends expect you to keep joining them for drinks after work, where they often complain about the owner. What would you do?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Professionalism and integrity
- Communication
How to approach this question
This MMI station tests whether you can lead fairly when friendship and new responsibility for your coworkers pull in different directions. Name the tension: Marcus's request and your friends' expectations against fairness to the two servers who have worked there longer. Consider how you'd set the schedule using criteria everyone can see, and how you'd explain decisions to your friends and the rest of the staff. Think about how your relationships need to change, including stepping back from the after-work complaints about the owner. Decide what you'd do and how you'd communicate it. When a follow-up forces a hard decision about a friend, show how you'd stay fair, consistent and honest with him.
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