How To Answer “Tell Me About A Time You Disagreed With Your Boss” (With Example Answers)

Disagreeing with your boss happens from time to time which is why interviewers like to ask “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss.” Interviewers ask this question to get an understanding of your relationship with a previous boss and how they resolved any disagreements with them.

If you’re a job seeker who’s unsure how to answer this question, stick around. In this article, we’ll go over how to answer “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss”, provide some disagreement with boss example answers, and go over some tips for answering this question.

Key Takeaways:

• When answering “Tell me a time you disagreed with your boss” you should map out your response, detail the situation honestly, and highlight the positive outcome.

• You should keep your answer to professional issues and avoid bringing in any personal issues you have with your boss.

• Try not to speak poorly about your boss when answering this question.

• Don’t lie and make up a story about a disagreement if you don’t have one, answer honestly and answer how you would handle a hypothetical situation.

Why interviewers ask “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss”

Hiring managers will ask “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss” to gauge your relationship with the former boss and how you handled difficult aspects of it. Additionally, the hiring manager wants to understand how you’ll communicate a negative situation professionally.

They’re looking for an answer that doesn’t sugarcoat the situation. An interviewee’s response must fully describe the circumstances, their response to the disagreement, and the outcome.

How to answer “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss”

When answering “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss” you should first map out your response, detail the situation honestly, and highlight the positive outcome. Here is a more detailed list of how to answer this interview question:

1. Map out your response. The trick to answering an interview question like this one completely is mapping out your response. You want to lay out the situation in an easily understandable way and break down every step of what happened next.

   For this question, in particular, you’ll want to describe the context of your job, your relationship with the boss, and the disagreement. Then, you’ll explain the actions you took to remedy the situation and the eventual outcome.

   Try to discuss a disagreement that ultimately had a positive outcome where you learned something from the interaction.

2. Detail the situation honestly. Avoid the instinct to diminish the situation’s conflict. The interviewer wants to know the details of a difficult situation, like disagreeing with your boss. Attempting to avoid this reality leaves a negative impression on the interviewer.

   Instead, explain the circumstance honestly. If there was a massive amount of tension leading up to the disagreement with your boss, explain this. If the situation suddenly arose out of nowhere but was an outburst, mention that. The goal is to put everything on the table for the interviewer to analyze.

   With that being said, choose the disagreement that you can discuss carefully. Detail a situation that demonstrates yourself in a professional and positive light. Even though you must talk about a former conflict, that doesn’t mean you have to pick one that makes you seem like a poor candidate for the job.

3. Highlight a positive outcome. In addition to describing the disagreement itself, this question is also covertly asking for what the circumstance’s result was.

   The job candidate’s goal should be to pick an example that highlights an honest disagreement but one that still ended in a positive outcome. Think back on your professional history and choose an experience that fits this mold.

   You don’t want to propose a situation that was never resolved in a productive way, even if it wasn’t your fault. The question isn’t asked to incite gossip; it’s a mechanism for evaluating a candidate’s professionalism.

Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss sample answer

Here are some example answer to this question for different scenarios you may face. Remember to tailor your answer to your specific needs.

1. Disagreement with a boss about a project example answer

   When I graduated from college, I got my first job working for a large firm as a marketing strategist on a team of 15 other people. I had a supervisor I’ll call “Mike” for the sake of privacy that I ended up having a bit of a disagreement with.

   After my first six months at the firm, we had just finished working on the first long-term project, and we’re about to start the second.

   I felt I had contributed greatly to the first project and proved myself to take on a little more responsibility. I asked to be granted some extra tasks to keep me busy, but Mike didn’t take the inquisition well. He got angry because he thought I was asking for too much too soon.

   While I felt a little upset that he’d turned me down so blatantly, I understood his decision and decided to put even more effort into the new project. He noticed my efforts and offered me a promotion the following year.

2. Disagreement with boss about staff turnover example answer

   In my last job, I was working as a shift manager for a local Italian restaurant under a general manager named Katie. The restaurant was having an issue with staff turnover.

   Every few weeks, another great waitress or hostess was quitting, and the management team was trying to figure out why this was happening. Katie thought that the issue was hiring inexperienced candidates who didn’t know how difficult the job could be.

   However, I disagreed with Katie. I thought that the high attrition rate was because the restaurant was offering an hourly pay that was a full dollar lower than the average rate in our state of residence.

   I also thought that the staff was frustrated because they didn’t receive much training when joining the team and felt continually confused.

   When we had a management meeting, I decided to voice this opinion professionally to the restaurant’s owners instead of backing up everything that Katie thought. I cared about the business’ success and had a good perspective on the problem.

   I think Katie ended up appreciating the communication because we used both of our insights to better the team for the future. The turnover rate ended up improving a lot over the next six months.

3. Disagreement with boss about a student cheating example answer

   During my years as a public high school math teacher, I came across a few situations where I was in disagreement with my boss. One instance that comes to mind was at a school I had worked at for three years prior.

   I felt comfortable and had a productive relationship with the school’s principal and my boss, Greg. We often agreed on administrative and educational decisions, but one time we did not at all. There was a student in my class who I’ll name Sam for the purpose of this interview.

   Sam was one of the top-performing students in the entire school. He was on track to be the valedictorian of his graduating class and was a joy to have in class. At the end of his junior year, he got caught up in a cheating scandal.

   Our school had a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who was even remotely involved with cheating, and it would result in suspension and a permanent mark on their academic record.

   Greg was sure that Sam had participated in the scheme because the cheaters used his work to copy. However, I knew Sam well and pushed for more investigation into the situation.

   It ended up being revealed that Sam had unwittingly supplied materials by providing a student with his document account login information to print out a study sheet.

   A little extra attention to figuring out the situation ended up saving Sam’s entire academic life, and the administration greatly appreciated it. The school ended up changing the process of investigation for cheating to be more thorough.

4. Disagreement with boss about work performance example answer

   In my last position, I found myself in a disagreement with my boss about my work performance. I believe that open communication is crucial in such situations, I so scheduled a one-on-one meeting with my boss to discuss the matter. I started the meeting by expressing my gratitude for their feedback and acknowledging their concerns.

   I presented my perspective on the situation and explained the steps that I had taken and my thought process on my decisions. It became clear that there were differing expectations about the project’s scope and some key deliverables. Instead of focusing on the disagreement, I focused on the solution.

   I asked for details about the areas where I fell short in their eyes. I also asked for guidance on how they envisioned the project’s success. After the meeting, I took time to reflect on the points we discussed and the feedback that they gave me. I documented the agreed-upon expectations and steps to meet them, and ensured that I had a clear reference for my work. I also checked in with my boss regularly and provided updates on my progress.

Tips for answering this question

When answering “tell me a time you disagreed with your boss” you should keep the disagreement to a professional issue, keep your story simple, and avoid speaking poorly about your previous boss. Here are some more tips to keep in mind when answering this question:

• Keep it to professional issues. You don’t want to discuss any personal issues when answering this question. The hiring manager isn’t looking for the time that your old boss stole your lunch or took your parking space. They want to know how you disagreed on how to handle a client issue or on a company policy.

• Keep your story simple. You want to go into detail but keep it simple. You don’t need to go over every detail such as what you were wearing or what the weather was like. Only give the details that are relevant to the situation.

• Don’t speak poorly about your previous boss. This is the time you are talking about a disagreement you had with them, but don’t start bad-mouthing them. It looks bad on your part and it could come back and haunt you. Just stick to how you disagreed with them. If you need to talk badly about them, do it in your car on your way home from the interview.

• Don’t lie. This isn’t the time to say you’ve never had a disagreement. This also isn’t the time to make up a story or change the outcome if you don’t like how it turned out. Think of a disagreement, even if it wasn’t a big deal, and highlight how you resolved the issue.

• Don’t bring up other coworkers. This is about a disagreement between you and your boss. Don’t bring in other coworkers and push the blame on them to make yourself look better. The hiring manager will eventually find out. They also don’t want to know about how your other coworkers handled the situation.

Different ways this question is asked

Similar questions that have a similar motive to “tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss” include:

• Tell me about a time you failed.

• What are some of your weaknesses?

• Tell me about a conflict you faced at work.

• How do you handle conflicts at work?

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with how your boss handled something.

• Have you ever disagreed with a company or department policy? How did you deal with that?

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision made at work.

• How do you handle disagreements with your supervisor?

• How do you handle conflict?

• Have you ever disagreed with someone in your group?

• How would you resolve a conflict with a customer or client?

• Have you ever had a conflict with a coworker and resolved it?

“Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss” FAQ

1. What are examples of common disagreements with your boss?

   Some common disagreements with your boss include:

   • Micromanaging you

   • Being discriminatory

   • Violating the company culture

2. How do you handle a conflict with your boss?

   When handling a conflict with your boss, be sure to focus on your common goals and interests. This will help you brainstorm ideas on how to resolve the conflict. Another way to handle conflict is to ask for their feedback and suggestions on how you both can work better together.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employment Interviewing: Seizing the Opportunity and the Job

2. CNBC – How to answer the interview question “Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss”

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.