Real-Life Decision Making
There is nothing routine about the job of a millwright. As a contracted worker, the hours are sporadic and the work can be unsteady. You may find yourself working in a nuclear plant one day and a chocolate factory the next, says millwright Rita Moore.
The change in scenery brings a change in faces and a change in rules. You will meet different foremen, answer to different bosses and work with different millwrights. It is not surprising, then, that sometimes personalities don't gel.
This week, you have been hired to update machines and move equipment at the ChocoWow factory. As usual, before the job begins, you attend a safety orientation given by the representatives of the chocolate company.
You learn that you can't wear your jewelry because the owners are concerned that it could fall in and end up as a chocolate product. Because chocolate takes on the flavors of the air in its environment, the owners ban torch-cutting or welding in certain sensitive areas.
If you need to cut or weld, you are to get permission from the foreman, who will check with the contractor boss, who will check with the chocolate company representative.
On your first day, you have been instructed to move a mixing tank to a new location in the plant. The tank is large and heavy, and you spend the morning freeing it up and preparing the dollies and constructing a clear path. By mid-afternoon, you and your apprentice are exhausted, but ready to move the tank.
As luck would have it, just as you are about to move it, you discover one more pipe bolted to the top of the tank. You must free the tank from the pipe before proceeding. So your apprentice gets a wrench, you climb to the top of the tank and began to unbolt the pipe flange.
There are only two bolts to undo. As you are almost finished, an unknown man on the floor, who has been staring at you for a while, begins to shout. You can barely make out what he's saying over the din of the plant.
His voice finally rings into your ears. He's telling you that the wrench is too slow. He wants you to get a torch. You've never seen this guy before, so you follow regulations and just keep working on the last bolt. But then the man starts getting really angry.
You yell down to him that you can't use a torch in this area.
He yells back, "No! Do what I say!"
Naturally you inquire, "Who are you?"
He shouts an answer that is hard enough to rattle the equipment, "I own the company! You work for me!"
What do you do?