THE QUESTION: You are the manager of a casual dining restaurant and have just closed the dining room at 10:00 p.m., per the policy. Just as you lock the door, a high school sports team arrives, knocks and asks you to reopen the restaurant for them.

 

 

WHAT’S YOUR ANSWER?
A. You ask the other employees if they are willing to stay late and serve the students.

B. You motion from the front door that the restaurant is closed and that it’s not in your power to reopen the dining room for them.

C. You quickly call the restaurant owner and ask how he would like you to handle the situation.

D. You reopen the dining room and let the team come in and eat.

 

WHAT’S MY ANSWER?

I picked B. You motion from the front door that the restaurant is closed, and that it’s not in your power to reopen the dining room for them.

 

In my experience, if the restaurant closes at 10 pm there is a high possibility that the kitchen has already shut down and cleaned everything. Even if the staff wanted to stay open later (which is a huge stretch), it would take forever to re-setup the restaurant to serve them. Also, big parties are a lot of work and hard to serve in general. For morale, I wouldn’t want to have my servers stay late for a big party unless they really, really wanted to.

 

Well, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let me know your answer and why in the comments below.

 

Click here to read an evaluation of this Dilemma from Fulvio Di Blasi, a world-renown scholar in the field of applied philosophy and business ethics.

 

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