OK, that was spit-out-my-coffee worthy...!!


To the OP: I didn't get this exact question, but there are any number of questions that boil down to the same thing, namely, are you going to do something about it (YES!!), and where are you going to start (AT THE LOWEST LEVEL POSSIBLE). The latter invariably involves talking with the individual first. When that gets no results (as it won't, in this interview situation) is the hard part. It's easier when you're the "new guy" in the scenario--you can play the "Captin, I'm still new, please help me understand how to do it right" card, and when that gets no results, "I'd follow up with my mentor / friend / other captain I fly with / etc. for advice on how to proceed." When you're the senior guy it's a little harder, but the same general logic applies. They're not looking for you to solve Hatgate; they want to see your thought process on how to handle conflict. If your answer is, "I'd call Richard Anderson and let him know that FO Smith isn't wearing his hat!!," you're doing it wrong....

This sort of process was my biggest takeaway from interview prep--how to think your way through these, out loud, to come to as much of a resolution as the scenario will allow (generally, not much!) in a methodical, logical, best-for-everyone-including-the-company-line manner. If you haven't done prep, I strongly recommend it--I felt comfortable without being cocky on all the variety of questions they threw at me, not because I'd heard the exact question before (very few of those), but because I'd learned how to categorize questions into "types" and handle each "type" of question.

Good luck!