Skip to main content

Exam Question

Please read the following scenario carefully before attempting to answer the question.

A newly qualified teacher starts working in a State School. As instructed, he sends his bank details via the school the Payroll Department in the Local Council. As per the norm, he is paid by cheque for the first month since he hasn’t yet been put onto the payroll system, which will pay his salary straight into his bank account.

In the Council’s Human Resources Department, HR Assistant Alex Dashmuck receives the teacher’s bank details, soon after they are sent and promptly files them away in the teacher’s personnel folder, instead of submitting them to Payroll for processing. As a result, at the end of the second month, the teacher doesn’t get paid at all.

You are the Head of Human Resources at the Council.

Do you:

a) Have a gentle word with Alex and admonish him/her for this mistake (even though this is already the fourth time this has happened in the last six months)?

b) Give Alex a verbal warning and threaten that the next time, the warning will be a written?

c) Give Alex a written warning because the last verbal one went in through one ear and didn’t even make it anywhere near the second one?

d) Start disciplinary proceedings against Alex because you’ve just “had enough”?

e) Pop a blood pressure pill and storm out of the office, with blood encrusted fists?

or

f) Invite the teacher, who is understandably livid, to come to the office and rip out Alex’s entrails via his/her nasal passage?

Please choose one of the above and provide practical evidence to justify your answer.

You have 30 minutes.

(25 marks)

Comments

I'm not even supposed to be here today said…
I'd like to pick (f), but being aware of the legalities, I would have to pick (d). Alex is incompetent and he is making my department look like it is very poorly run... and if I don't move to have him fired, I will prove these suspicions correct. (I would also figure out a way to to delay the deposit of his final paycheck)
Thursday, 01 September, 2005
The Scribbler said…
I'd give you 10/25 but you lose marks because you didn't fully answer the question - where's your practical evidence?
Thursday, 01 September, 2005
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Jewberry Muds

To get the full effect, this message should be read out loud. You will understand what 'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation. This has been nominated for the best email of 2005. The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the FarEast Economic Review: Room Service (RS): "Morrin. Roon sirbees." Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service." RS: "Rye..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??" G: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs." RS: "Ow July den?" G: "What??" RS: "Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?" G: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please." RS: "Ow July dee baykem? Crease?" G: "Crisp will be fine." RS: "Hokay. An Sahn toes?" G: "What?" RS: "An toes. July Sahn toes?" G: "I don't think so."...
3 comments
Read more

Bye Bye University

I can't quite believe it but today is in fact my last as a student. My course ends when I walk out of school at 13.15 I've now fulfilled the statutory days demanded of me as a student teacher. From Monday, I will be effectively unemployed - until Thursday, so I reckon we'll survive. That's it folks, my course is over. I have yet to hear whether or not I've passed, although between you and me ( shhhh don't tell anyone ) I am now a newly qualified teacher in everything but name. The exam board meets Mid-July to make those all important decisions and that's when I expect to get my congratulatory letter through the post. It's been an interesting year, to say the least. There have been ups and downs although the positive has vastly outweighed the negative. I find standing in a classroom less daunting and if anything, I now have the confidence to teach, which I didn't have when I started. I know I've only been doing this lark since September (and teach...
3 comments
Read more

Magic Moments

At the end of a sunny day, Dana decided to start a water fight. She sprinkled a bit of tap water in my direction. Then her eyes lit up and she ran out of the room. I of course thought nothing of it, until she returned with a filled water pistol! That was it - The race was on to remember where I'd hidden the other three unopened packets. With pistols at the ready, the kids got in on the act and what could have been a ginormous water fight was almost immediately curtailed as Shira did not appreciate being spritzed in the face. The sheer impulsiveness of the moment was Dana all over and it's one of the things that I love so much about her. The pistols have been seized and are ready, waiting for another day when I predict we are all seriously going to have the most amazing and floodworthy water-fight. I can't wait (and neither can the kids).
Post a Comment
Read more