Real-Life Decision Making
You are a furniture refinisher who is working on refinishing four walnut
chairs. These chairs are quite old -- valuable antiques actually -- and it's
important that they are finished perfectly.
You have always taken great pride in your work. You never rush to get a
job done and you always treat every piece of furniture as if it were your
own.
The customer who owns these chairs dropped them off a few
days ago. She told you that she was in no rush for them -- she wouldn't
need them for at least three weeks.
At least, that's what she told your boss when she dropped them off.
Unfortunately, she just called and said she was hosting a spur-of-the-moment
dinner party and would need the chairs done by this Friday. Today is Monday
and you haven't even started them yet.
Your boss tells you to get started on them right away. She's a good
customer and if she wants them done by Friday, she'll have them.
You take a closer look at the chair to see just how long the actual refinishing
is going to take. Provided you have all the proper sandpaper and refinishing
supplies on hand, you should be able to get them done for Friday.
You decide to remove all of the old finish on all of the chairs first.
Once you do that, you sand them and reapply the first coat of finish. Once
that first coat has fully dried, you need to sand all of the chairs again.
But this time, however, you need to use a special type of sandpaper. You
go to the shelf where you keep your old, almost worn-out sandpaper. You have
found this works best when sanding walnut. It removes the dust but doesn't
scratch the new surface.
Much to your horror, all of your old sandpaper is gone. You search high
and low through the shop but all you can find is the brand new, and quite
coarse, sandpaper -- exactly the kind that you don't want.
You try not to panic. Instead, you look for your boss and explain the situation
to him. You tell him that you need to have this sandpaper if you want to finish
this job by Friday.
He doesn't know what happened to your sandpaper, but he suggests you
find something else to use. You explain to him that any other sandpaper may
wreck the finish. He says he doesn't care what you do but you need to
finish those chairs, and properly, by Friday, or else!
What do you do?