Tell me about a problem that landed while your manager was unreachable. What did you decide yourself, and what did you hold for their return?

With the escalation path gone, defaults show: freeze, overreach, or act within sensible limits. The second clause makes knowing what not to decide alone part of the score, which pure hero framings miss.

• How did you judge that it couldn't wait?
• Whose input did you get, with the manager away?
• What did your manager say once they were back?

Quick triage of urgent versus deferrable, action scoped to what they could genuinely own, someone consulted along the way, and a prompt, complete account when the manager returned.

Everything waited — or nothing did; decisions taken far beyond their knowledge with nobody consulted; or the manager heard about it later, secondhand.