Question

Caselet (Questions 97-100): Om Chowdhury was one of the supervisors in the Fire and Safety (F&S) department of Maqsood Textile Mills. He was a distant cousin of Mr. Bhiwani, the General Manager (Personnel & Administration), and the Personnel and Administration department handled all personnel-related decisions. It was often rumored that Om had gotten the job because of his cousin's influence. Om, however, was careful in his work and never gave anyone a reason to complain. He was known to be a quiet man who kept to himself and his duties.

All F&S supervisors reported to Mr. Rabindra, the shop-floor manager. The mill ran on a three-shift basis, and Rabindra allotted supervisors to the different shifts. Supervisors had to stay present through the whole shift and run scheduled checks on the machinery and firefighting equipment. For some reason, Rabindra kept assigning Om to the night shift more often than the other supervisors. Om never objected to this, while the other supervisors often pleaded with Rabindra to be given day shifts instead. Staying awake and alert through the night shift was one of the hardest parts of the job.

After a while, Rabindra noticed that Om seemed indifferent to his work. Twice he found Om missing from his cabin, and others told him Om had been seen wandering different parts of the shop floor. Rabindra called Om in and reminded him of his responsibilities. Om did not argue and promised not to be careless again. Rabindra also raised the matter with Mr. Bhiwani, who called Om in for a personal talk and reminded him that their family tie made the situation awkward for everyone. Om agreed to improve, and soon he became a model supervisor, even going out of his way to help employees with their problems.

Three months later, Rabindra visited the plant at night and, looking into the F&S office, found Om playing solitaire on the office computer. Rabindra fired Om on the spot.

The next morning, Mr. Bhiwani called Rabindra and asked how he could fire an employee like that, and suggested he reconsider the dismissal. Rabindra replied, "This decision has already been made. There will be no turning back."

Question: Of the options below, which could have been a better response from Mr. Rabindra when he saw Om playing solitaire?

• A. He should have clarified his authority to fire employees.
• B. He should have informed Mr. Bhiwani about the incident and asked him to take the necessary action.
• C. He should have asked the employees of the shift about Om's performance of his duties.
• D. He should have checked whether Om had done his duties or not.

Hint:

The missing fact at that moment was simple: had Om's scheduled checks actually been done?

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The question wants the better move for Rabindra right when he spotted Om at the computer. Let's look at each option.

1. A. Clarify his own authority to fire: this is about Rabindra's powers as a manager, not about establishing whether Om actually did anything wrong that night.
2. B. Inform Bhiwani and ask him to act: this skips straight to escalation without first finding out the facts, and also drags the awkward cousin relationship back into it.
3. C. Ask other employees about Om's performance: secondhand impressions from co-workers are a weaker check than looking at the actual record of completed safety checks.
4. D. Check whether Om had done his duties: this goes straight to the one fact that matters, were the scheduled checks done, and settles the question of misconduct directly and reliably.
5. E. Check production levels for the shift: production output is not what an F&S supervisor's duties are measured by, so this does not answer the real question.

Option D is the direct, fact-based first step Rabindra skipped before firing Om.

Let's summarize:

• Verify the specific duty in question before reacting to how something looks.
• Indirect checks, co-workers, production, authority questions, are weaker substitutes for looking at the actual record.

So the better response was option D.