Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You continue using your wrench on the tank.
The foreman expects you to finish a job without instruction, even though
there may be 10 ways to fix something. "As a skilled journeyman, you alone
must decide which is the quickest and safest way and trust your judgment to
do it," says Moore.
You've been instructed not to use a torch in this area, so you go
on using your wrench on the bolt. The owner orders you to come down, so you
do. The owner turns to the foreman and declares you incompetent. You are laid
off immediately.
Usually the most senior person around is the foreman, Moore admits. Typically,
there are no unknown people in the work area.
Ted Hazen, a millwright, says it can be difficult to decide what to do.
"Sometimes decisions are made by people totally unqualified to make them.
They are made by the people who hold the power and the decision-making
process," he says.
Be prepared, says Moore, to encounter difficult people. You can't
change that. "Doing it his way was too slow, but doing it my way was wrong
because it wasn't his way and he was the boss." It was a lose-lose situation.