Mary Beth is a supervisor of a unit consisting of four employees--Cheryl, Susan, Fred and Michael. Financial hardship dictates that the organization has to downsize its operations and Mary Beth has to let two of her employees go. The organization decides to retain or terminate employees based solely on their seniority.

* Mike has higher seniority than Cheryl.

* Fred has higher seniority than Sue.

* Fred has higher seniority than Cheryl.

1. Mike will be terminated

A)True
B)False
C)Unknown

2. Sue will be terminated

A)True
B)False
C)Unknown

1. C)Unknown

2. C)Unknown

Explanation:

The company wants to disengage staff based on seniority but does not state of it is the highest ranking or lowest ranking that will go

So if we assume the two lowest ranking staff are to be let go.

From the scenario above Fred is more senior than Cheryl and Sue, so he must be 1st or 2nd.

To determine if Mike is to be terminated, he is senior to Cheryl. If Cheryl is 4th then Mike can be 3rd and will go. If Cheryl is 3rd then Mike can be 1st or 2nd and will stay. There is no way to determine Mike's rank from the data given.

To determine if Sue will go, Fred is more senior to Sue. So if Fred is 1st Sue can be 2nd and stay. However Sue can be 3rd or even 4th and still satisfy the conditions. So in this case also we cannot determine if Sue will be laid off with the data given.

answer; niosh, the national institute for occupational safety and health;