Prompt
You are working at a coffee shop. A customer who smells strongly of alcohol and is slurring his words buys a coffee and walks toward his car, where a young child is waiting in the back seat. What would you do?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Critical thinking
- Communication
How to approach this question
This panel interview question tests whether you act decisively when a child's safety may be at immediate risk and you can't be certain the driver is impaired. Name the stakes clearly: the child, other people on the road, and the customer himself. Weigh speaking to him calmly, offering an alternative such as a taxi or calling someone to pick him up, and contacting the police, and mention your own safety as a coffee shop employee. Explain the order you'd act in and what would make you escalate. Land on a clear plan, and say how you'd weigh the cost of being wrong about him against the cost of doing nothing.
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