Real-Life Decision Making
At least 20 pieces of machinery are under your care. That's 10 bulldozers, five front-end loaders, three trucks, a backhoe and a grader. With that much heavy metal on the job site, something always seems to need repair.
Yesterday it was four pieces of equipment. You realigned a thrown bulldozer track and fixed a flat tire. But what had you most concerned was the fact that two hydraulic hoses broke on the front-end loaders.
The hydraulic fluid in those hoses helps the loader lift heavy loads of bricks, rocks and sand over the heads of workers and out of the way. In the event that more than one hose broke at once, the bucket could fall to the ground.
The fact that two hoses broke so close together could mean that they're all close to breaking. You decide to spend a couple of hours this morning replacing the main hoses in all the equipment.
You warned the machine operators, who agreed the work was important and said they would find other work to do while you fixed their machines.
But your boss, the head of the construction project, is anxious to keep the project moving. He reminds you of an upcoming deadline and tells you to fix the front-end loaders at the end of the day instead. He tells you he'll pay you overtime if you stay late.
You could follow your boss's orders. Allow the machine operators to run the equipment for one more working day, hope the hoses don't fail, then fix them all in the evening.
Or you could disobey your boss's orders and begin working on the hoses at once. Or compromise and fix the most crucial pieces of equipment first, and the rest at the end of the day.
What do you do?