Upon graduation from the Industrial Maintenance Technology program, John obtained a
position with a well-known Fortune 500 company. John was from the farm and was raised to
have good work ethics. After about three months of training, he was put on night shift and was
assigned to the extrusion department. He never received many breaks because every time he
started to take a break, his radio would go off. “John, Number 5 machine is down; could you
take a look at it for me?” He became angry with his supervisor. “Can’t a man get a decent break
around here?” thought John. At break time John would hang out in the break room with all his
maintenance buddies. He would express his grief about the break situation to them. They even
made crude jokes about the supervisor.
John desperately wanted to move to dayshift. Every time some of his buddies at home wanted
to go fishing, John would have to go home and get some sleep to be ready for work the next
night. He believed if he made it to day shift, he would have plenty of time on his off days to fish.
When the day position came open, John, as well as two of the other maintenance men, applied.
The supervisor called John in his office the next night and told him he may as well take his name
off of the list. When John questioned the supervisor for a reason, the supervisor told him of the
change in his attitude since he started. He said that until his attitude changed, a promotion was
out of the question.
- Do you think John made a mistake? If so, what was it?
- What would you have done if you were the supervisor?
- What advice would you give to John?
- Provide an example of a time when your attitude had a negative outcome on your job
performance? How could you have responded differently?
Sample Solution
