Overall:
Jeff is an engineer at Nagelbett and was assigned to install equipment at Treehorn, so he planned a week long vacation with his friends at a ski resort near the place of his assignment. However, some of the equipment was late, so he would be stuck installing the last couple units an extra couple days, overlapping with his vacation time. Treehorn engineer Walter had been watching Jeff install everything, so he offered to install the remaining units after they come in since he felt comfortable installing them. Jeff felt that Walter could install the rest but knew that Nagelbett wanted every installation monitored by one of their own engineers to minimize the number of accidents due to improper installation. Jeff is stuck between his company’s policy and his vacation.
Scenario A (call with boss):
Torn with this decision, Jeff calls his office and speaks to chief engineer Donny who says he cannot officially let Jeff leave early. The conversation with Donny seems to put emphasis on the job simply getting done, and Donny doesn’t care about details and hypotheticals, a point he repeats a few times. Donny seems to put this decision on Jeff and shrugs off the responsibility for this decision. Jeff very much believes that Walter is capable enough to install the rest and really wants to go on the vacation he already paid for. He thinks that the instructions are easy enough to follow, especially for people like Walter, and that his company sending their own engineers as not even necessary. Furthermore, there would be no legal implications on Jeff or the company if he did leave, since his supervision isn’t required by law or their contract. Jeff is clearly leaning toward leaving for his vacation since he would not be caught unless something went wrong, which he believe will not happen, and even if it did, Nagelbett technically did not do anything wrong. For Jeff, the worst case may only affect his job and not the company, but it also could be risking people getting hurt due to the improper installing. His decision will be choosing between his duty and the safety of others, and his own pleasures with minimum personal consequences.
Scenario B (next assignment instead of vacation):
In scenario B, however, Jeff’s reason for having to decide whether or not to leave early is the fact that he could be late for his next work assignment if he doesn’t leave early. If this is the case, his delay will cause him to fail to meet a deadline for a major customer (who insists on having the assignment done on time).
He decides to deal with this by telling Walter that he will stop by the company just for a quick, overall inspection of the final installation. With this final check, Jeff plans to sign the papers indicating that he has truly supervised all the installations fully.
In this scenario, the nature of the excuse is more serious than a vacation. That is, part of the company could be put at risk as a result of failing to meet a deadline. The legality of the situation is also heightened. By signing the “papers”, Jeff is making a legal promise that he has done what he is supposed to and supervised the installation as necessary. If he doesn’t actually live up to this promise, however, there is a risk that by signing the papers anyway, he may put his job in danger. By lying on a legal document, if anything goes wrong with the equipment down the line, fingers will point to him for blame. In fact, lying on such a document is a serious offense and can have legal consequences in addition to his employment risks.
Team McGonagall 