Tell me about a time you had a disagreement or conflict with a coworker. What was the situation and how did you resolve it?
"Before becoming a pharmacy technician, I worked as an associate in a retail store. I had a colleague who was very negative and constantly complained about other employees and management. It was affecting the team's morale, and others began joining in. I felt like I had a good relationship with this colleague, for the most part, so I asked him to have lunch together one day. I asked if I could provide them with some feedback, and they were open to it. I was gentle in my approach but honest with him about his impact on the team and the discomfort he was causing me when he talked negatively about other employees to me. I let him know that as a senior employee on the team, others look up to him and often follow his lead and attitude. I wasn't sure how he would take it, but I felt like I had to have an open conversation with him and give him an opportunity to self-reflect and change their behaviour before I escalated it to my manager. I feel like he genuinely had a blind spot with the behaviours and appreciated me coming to him one-off and having the courage to have the tough conversation. By talking about it openly and in a non-accusatory or confrontational way, it did improve our team, and he made the desired changes."
"I worked in a pharmacy in the past that was short-staffed and had just hired on two new pharmacy technicians. We didn't have a supervisor at the time, so things were very chaotic. There was some conflict between the pharmacy techs because no one knew what they were responsible for, and tasks were falling through the cracks and causing frustration. As the more senior technician, I asked if we could all sit down and talk about the workflow process so we could all get on the same page about who was responsible for what, how we could better communicate and work together to make the shift more seamless. I enjoy taking on a mentoring role, and I felt everyone had a lot of strengths to bring; we just had to regroup and set expectations so that each person knew their role in the pharmacy function. We were able to hold things together until they hired a supervisor for us a few weeks later."
It's normal to experience conflict in the workplace, especially when working with people daily. At the NHS, you will likely work with other technicians, pharmacists, admin staff, etc., so you must have well-developed interpersonal skills. Give the interviewer an example of a time you experienced conflict in the workplace and describe the situation, how you approached it or addressed it, and what the outcome was. Refrain from speaking negatively about past coworkers and focus on the positives of the situation.
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