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Business ~ Workplace Etiquette

Business Etiquette Quiz

Test Your E.I. (Etiquette Intelligence)
Are You a Gracious Go-Getter or the Office Oaf?

A colleague begins to tell you a story he heard about a coworkers private life, so you:

A. Diplomatically tell him you’re not interested in hearing about it.

B. Listen carefully—the more you know about your coworkers, the better equipped you’ll be to navigate office politics.

C. Listen intently and then rush off to tell someone else in the office all the juicy details.

A client has been waiting for about five minutes to meet with you but you’re running a little behind schedule, and you need a few more minutes to finish up, so you:

A. Take a minute to walk out and apologize in person and offer him a cup of coffee and a magazine.

B. Have your assistant tell him you are running behind schedule and you will be a few more minutes.

C. Finish what you’re working on—you’ll get it done faster that way and they’ll only have to wait a few more minutes.

One of your coworkers has clearly "had a few" at the office party, so you:

A. Pull him aside and try to get him to switch to juice or coffee—you don’t want him making a fool out of himself in front of the boss.

B. Ignore it.

C. Decide he’s got the right idea and join him in overindulging—after all it is a party.

You enter a coworker’s office or cubicle to chat and she’s on the phone, so you:

A. Leave a note saying you need to speak with her and try to get her at another time.

B. Stand in the doorway and wait for her to get off—it’ll save you the time of having to come back later when she’ll probably just be on another call.

C. Insist that she speak with you immediately—it’s important and you don’t have time to wait around.

You witness one of your coworkers tell the new intern that she "looks really sexy in the short skirts she always wears," so you:

A. Privately point out that his comments were sexist and offensive.

B. Publicly criticize his character—he needs to be deterred from making similar comments in the future.

C. Laugh heartily and voice your agreement—it’s just harmless fun.

You work in a casual-dress office and you have a meeting at your company’s bank, so you:

A. Dust off your best suit—you want to leave nothing to chance.

B. Dress up a little more than usual, maybe add a jacket to your ensemble.

C. Dress as casually as usual—what counts is the substance of the meeting, not your appearance.

As the marketing manager in your company you vastly underestimate the time required for your division to complete a project and you come out way over budget, so you:

A. Accept responsibility for the error and admit to your staff that you made a mistake and set about to correct it.

B. Say nothing, but take action to correct your mistake.

C. Attempt to deflect your responsibility for the error by spreading blame around—after all, you can’t be perceived as a screw up by your staff.

Your boss calls you into her office to go over your latest report, and she criticizes a significant portion of your work, so you:

A. Listen carefully and take time to think about everything she said before offering a response.

B. Respond to each criticism as it comes up to insure you don’t miss the opportunity to downplay each one.

C. Get angry at her and quickly point out many of her shortcomings—she needs to know she’s not perfect either and next time maybe she’ll think twice before criticizing your work.

You notice that a male colleague’s fly is undone and because you’re a female you’re a little embarrassed about saying anything to him, so you:

A. Have one of the other men in the office tell him.

B. Simply ignore it.

C. Make an office joke of it – every office needs some comic relief to liven it up.

You want a raise and in order to justify it you tell your boss:

A. What new responsibilities you can assume and what you can achieve with the added responsibilities.

B. That your salary is below average for your position in your region.

C. About how expensive your grandfather’s nursing home bills are.

SCORING

Add up the number of corresponding points for each letter. A’s are 2 points, B’s are 1 point and C’s are 0 points.

20 – 15 Your business etiquette is rock solid. You’re able to handle a wide variety of everyday situations with grace and sensitivity.

14 – 10 You usually practice sound business etiquette. Focus on approaching every situation with thought and consideration for others and your company.

9 – 0 Your business etiquette is bankrupt. You need to spend considerable time learning and practicing how to handle a variety of common business social challenges properly.