How to Answer What Would You Do if You Saw a Coworker Stealing

If you're preparing for an interview, you'll likely encounter ethical interview questions that allow the interviewer to get an idea of your ethics as an employee. While ethical dilemma questions can be challenging, practicing how you will respond to this type of question can help you succeed in answering it. Additionally, there are a few different ways the interviewer may ask you ethical interview questions, so you'll want to be ready in advance. In this article, we'll explore why employers ask ethical interview questions, how to answer them and look at several example responses to help you succeed in your interview.

Why employers ask ethical interview questions

Employers ask ethical dilemma interview questions to assess your integrity and approach to evaluating and solving problems in the workplace. Another important reason for this type of question is that it allows employers to see what your values are as a professional and how those values align with the company.

Typically, employers may ask a broad question, such as, "Can you describe a time when you were faced with an ethical dilemma?" With this ethical interview question, your answer will be an example of a situation you experienced when you relied on transparency when interacting with others, your core values, empathy and morality to solve an ethical problem in the workplace.

In other instances, ethical dilemma interview questions can consist of specific situational questions that an interviewer asks to get a sense of these qualities in various hypothetical situations. Several types of ethical dilemma interview questions you can prepare for in advance include:

What would you do if an employer asked you to misrepresent information?
What would you do if a manager or supervisor asked you to do something against your own ethics?
What would you do if you witnessed a coworker doing something unethical?

Related: How to Prepare for a Behavioral Interview

How to answer ethical dilemma interview questions

When you prepare for your interview, there are several steps you can take to ensure you have a response ready in the event you encounter moral interview questions:

1. Think of an experience and how you handled it

The most effective way to answer ethical interview questions is with specific examples from your past experience. Think of a situation when you found yourself solving a conflict, taking action against an unethical behavior or another situation where you had to rely on your problem-solving and ability to act under pressure. For instance, maybe you witnessed a coworker stealing or a new supervisor using company equipment for personal gains. You can use examples like these to describe how you approached the situation to help resolve it.

2. Relate your actions to the company's values or mission

Describe your experience using examples of your communication skills, critical thinking and decision-making skills. Explain the situation and how you were able to solve the conflict in a morally appropriate manner. This will allow the interviewer to understand how your core values and beliefs motivate you to approach an ethical dilemma. For instance, if you confronted the coworker who was stealing and notified your supervisor, these actions can highlight how you value employee-employer trust and transparency.

3. Prioritize the company's needs and interests

When you respond with your experience, consider how your actions and the outcome of the situation shows how you prioritize the interests of the company. For instance, if you noticed an employee access your past company's client network for personal interests or gains and took action to stop it, describe how you did so while upholding the company's interests.

4. Emphasize acting with integrity

No matter the type of situation you experienced and respond with during the interview, clearly emphasize your ability to act with honesty and integrity. Even if your experience required you to take action against wrong-doing or unethical behaviors, be sure to reiterate your values and showcase how you chose to take steps toward a solution proactively and fairly.

5. Apply the STAR response technique

Ethical dilemma interview questions are really just situational interview questions that focus on moral actions and integrity in the workplace. Just like situational interview questions, you can answer ethical questions with the STAR response technique:

Situation: Briefly describe the ethical dilemma or situation you experienced.
Task: Explain your role and the roles of everyone involved in the situation.
Action or approach: Give examples of the approaches you took to solve the situation.
Result: Highlight how you applied integrity, your values and other skills to come to a resolution. Connect this to the values of the company.

Related: How to Use the STAR Interview Response Technique

Example answers

Since ethical interview questions can range from broad questions to hypothetical scenarios that you must approach, it's helpful to have a variety of examples as a guide. The following sample answers for ethical interview questions can help you get an idea of how to prepare your own response:

Example 1: Customer service and sales

"Several years ago in my first role as a retail associate, I witnessed a coworker taking cash from one of the registers. At first, it looked just like changing over the drawer, but I decided to confront the staff member anyway. The employee was actually taking money from the register, and I took the cash they had from the drawer, placed it back in the register and notified my supervisor. We were able to resolve the issue through balancing the cash drawer and ensuring that particular employee was unable to commit theft from the company again."

Example 2: Medical and healthcare

"When I worked at a small hospital as an RN, I noticed a nurse's aide was behaving erratically. The first incident involved the aide forgetting to administer very important medications, which I attributed to the employee's skill level. I first discussed it with them and helped provide support and guidance to help the employee improve. However, the employee began displaying erratic behavior again. I notified our nurse manager of the employee's behavior. It was found that the employee was working while intoxicated, putting patients at risk, and the employee was terminated.

Example 3: Education and teaching

"In my first elementary teaching position, I witnessed a colleague changing the scores on her students' tests. When I asked her why she explained that she was just rounding up so the grades would be whole percentage points. While the school's funding always depended on the cumulative average of student achievement on standardized state assessments, cheating is a legally and morally inappropriate approach to obtain it. I notified the principal and assistant principal of the teacher's cheating so proper disciplinary action could be taken. Student achievement is very important to me, and to change their grades diminishes their efforts."

Example 4: Educational training, college or graduate school

"At the end of my freshman year, we were taking our final exams, and I saw one of my classmates cheating on the exam. I understood the challenge that the exam posed, and I knew that failing the exam could affect our GPA. However, I don't believe it's ethical to achieve success at the expense of others, and at the end of the class session, I alerted my professor to what I saw. I explained that although I know the consequences of failing, and even more so with cheating, I couldn't stand to let someone plagiarize another's work."

Example 5: Finance and accounting

"In my last bookkeeping position, I was responsible for approving, recording and reporting business expenses. My boss asked me once to run an expense through approval, but it was a personal expense and not work-related. Although I didn't want to upset my boss, doing so weighed less on my work ethics and legal conscience as a bookkeeper than refusing to record the cost as a business expense. My boss didn't follow through with putting the personal expense through the business account and actually thanked me for reminding them of their moral and legal obligation to the company."

Related: 5 Situational Interview Questions (With Example Answers)

Tips for answering ethical interview questions

Here are some additional tips to review so you can prepare to answer ethical interview questions:

Avoid stating that you've never been faced with an ethical dilemma. This is especially true if you have experience in roles where you've interacted with professionals and customers. Your response to an ethical dilemma question doesn't have to involve a heroic act or a serious and life-changing event. Your answer really just needs to highlight your ethics and values as an employee.
Always give an example from your professional experience. It's best to avoid talking about a personal life experience, such as donating to charities or volunteering in the community. While these activities can show that you're dedicated to "doing the right thing," they don't truly highlight how you would approach conflict as an employee. If you can't think of any work situation where you faced an ethical dilemma, think back to your time in college or high school and use an example from that experience.
Provide real-life examples of how you approached a situation. Unless the question is a hypothetical situation that the interviewer wants you to come up with a solution for, avoid hypothetical stories as responses to these types of questions. The interviewer will likely know it's not true, and this in itself can have a negative impact on your interview. Instead, use a real example from any professional or academic setting where you behaved ethically and with integrity to solve a problem.

How to Answer What Would You Do if You Saw a Coworker Stealing

Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/ethical-interview-questions