Confidential layoff news about a friend's father: a medical school interview question
- Kind
- Ethical dilemma
Prompt
You have a summer job in the human resources office of a manufacturing company, and you have seen a confidential list of 40 layoffs that will be announced in three weeks. Your best friend's father is on the list, and your friend mentions that her parents are signing a lease on a more expensive house this weekend. What would you do?
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How to approach this question
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Professionalism and integrity
- Empathy and compassion
How to approach it
This confidentiality question tests whether you'll keep information private when sharing it could spare your best friend's family real financial harm. Name the competing duties: your obligation to your employer and to the 39 other people on the list, your loyalty to your friend, and the trust that makes confidentiality meaningful at all. Recognize that hinting counts as disclosing, and that you can't be sure the plans won't change. Consider what you can do within the rules, such as asking your supervisor how to handle a personal conflict like yours, or supporting your friend without revealing what you saw. Weigh the harm of the lease against the harm of breaking trust. Then commit to a clear course of action, and explain what you'd say if your friend later asked whether you knew.
More on confidentiality and privacy
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