“It's not up to me; I'm way too far down on the totem pole.”

At work, a member of another department suggests a change. You think it's a good suggestion, but you can't agree to it because you don't have the power to make that change. One of your bosses will need to agree to it. You say:

It's not up to me; I'm way too far down on the totem pole.

Click to read more ...

“He's just worried about people undermining his authority.”

At work, you sent an email message to someone in the tech support department to get one of your computer programs fixed. The tech support manager sent you back an angry e-mail saying that you are supposed to go through him to get tech support help. You're annoyed that the manager got angry at you for such a small mistake. You're complaining to another coworker about it. You say:

He's just worried about people undermining his authority.

Click to read more ...

“Yeah, he's a real stickler for following the proper chain of command.”

At work, your coworker is complaining because she got yelled at by the manager of the tech support department. She sent an e-mail to one of the tech support staff directly instead of going through the manager. You've been yelled at by this person in the past, so you have some experience dealing with him. But you don't want to say anything too bad about him. So you say:

Yeah, he's a real stickler for following the proper chain of command.

Click to read more ...

“As you're well aware, all requests for tech support are to go through me.”

You're the manager of a tech support department at a company. People are supposed to e-mail you when they need help with their computers and other technology. Then you choose an employee from your staff to help them. One coworker doesn't follow the rules, and always calls one of your staff members directly instead. She just did this again, so you write an angry e-mail telling her not to do this. You begin:

As you're well aware, all requests for tech support are to go through me.

Click to read more ...

“I always try to project an image of authority.”

You're a teacher. You're explaining to a young first-year colleague how you manage your classes. You say:

I always try to project an image of authority.

Click to read more ...

“From now on, check with me before you do that.”

Someone who works for you made a decision without asking you, and he made a mistake. You are a little bit angry, and you want to make sure this doesn't happen again. You say:

From now on, check with me before you do that.

Click to read more ...

“People in a position of authority have a responsibility...”

Memorize

You are writing an essay about your opinion on a scandal. The scandal involved a school principal who was spying on his students over the Internet. You want to say that it was wrong for this principal to spy on the students because of his position. You also want to say that it's wrong for other people to do similar things. You write:

People in a position of authority have a responsibility not to abuse that authority.

Click to read more ...