>Think of the last person you know who left the company. Why did they leave?
I don't think you'll get an honest answer for this a lot of the time, often team members might not even directly know why someone was laid off
>When was your last vacation, and how long was it?
This is a bit tough too, it's very subjective. I personally like working, and while I encourage my employees to use all of their vacation time, I rarely do so myself (I spread my time around as individual days rather than large chunks).
Also depends on your audience. Parents will answer this much differently than individuals.
It does depend on your audience, but I've gotten good mileage out of these questions, so personally vouch for them. I got them from the book "Switch"[0], which has better phrasing than I jotted down in my comment. I highly recommend the book.
I'd argue against asking questions that have a clearly negative predicted response. Whenever a question is clearly skewed in one direction, the subject has a tendency to become suspicious and will often try to give the unintended answer. This is why tests like the MMPI use validity indicators and repeat questions.
- When did you last miss supper / a personal event because you were working late?
- Think of the last person you know who left the company. Why did they leave?
- When was your last vacation, and how long was it?
These are essentially a way of asking, how’s the work life balance? In a way that avoids the BS answer, “great!”