The company episode 1
The company 1
………………………………………………..
As Stanley opened the door into his office, he had a smile on his face. A part of him seemed to have been resurrected back to life. He had missed his job. He took a few steps reaching the centre of the room and took a long deep breath with his eyes shut and his face facing the ceiling. “It feels good to be back”, he murmured to himself. He looked around the office for a while before walking to his seat. He sat down, said a short prayer before opening the file lying on top of his desk. He knew what the file contained and couldn’t wait to go through them. He hoped everything was good.
Stanley was a middle aged man. He worked as a quality control officer in a manufacturing company. He was married and had two boys and a girl. He loved his job and was dedicated to it. He had been away for almost a month on his annual leave. Clearly, he had missed his job so dearly that coming back meant so much to him. While he was away, his assistant filled in his position.
As Stanley flipped through the doc-ments contained in the file on his desk, he nodded in agreement with what they contained. He continued until he got to one. His facial expression changed as he keenly observed that particular piece of paper. He quickly flipped through the next few doc-ments before going back to the first one that caught his attention. As he observed that closely again, he indignantly murmured “this is very bad”. After observing the doc-ments for some long minutes, he picked up the receiver of the intercom and dialed a number. “Come quickly”, he said into the receiver before keeping it back and continuing observing the doc-ments. Barely three minutes on, Raphael knocked on the door and entered. They had barely finished their greeting before Stanley handed a some of the doc-ments to him and asked him to observe them closely.
Raphael was Stanley’s assistant in the quality control department. While Stanley was away on his annual leave, Raphael headed the department and oversaw the quality control assessment of the products produced during that period. Among those products were over twenty thousand litres of hydraulic fluid which were just ready for distribution. There were some wrong calculations in the manufacturing process of the hydraulic fluid which had affected its quality, but Raphael didn’t observe them. It was an honest mistake on his part. Raphael read through the doc-ments repeatedly but couldn’t still point out what Stanley wanted him to see. As he was still basking in confusion, Stanley came over and showed him what he found.
He showed him some calculations and did a quick review of them showing they were wrongly done. As he did that, Raphael held his hands over his mouth in surprise and realization of how costly the mistakes were. That showed that the over twenty litres of hydraulic fluid were wrongly produced and as such were not safe for distribution. He made a rough calculation of the amount the fluid costed in his mind and scre-med “Stan, I’m finished”. Stanley was lost at what to tell him. He wanted to tell him it was well, but he couldn’t. It was not well even in the least. Taking his observations to the management of the company meant that both the production unit and the quality control department were in a huge problem. Letting it go and allowing the fluid to be distributed meant intentionally endangering people’s lives. It was a dilemma.
After considering the ugly options, Stanley decided it was best to let the management know and stop the distribution of the fluid. He also advised Raphael to brace himself and prepare for whatever the outcome might be. Raphael wanted to plead with him to let the distribution flow, but he couldn’t. He knew the moral implication and he also knew that Stanley would never agree to that. He took Stanley’s advice and prepared for the worse. At midday the next day, Stanley went to the managing director of the company with his discovery. After they had exchanged pleasantries and the managing director had welcomed Stanley back from his leave, Stanley started revealing what brought him.
“Sir, I came with a troubling discovery which I wish I know how else to handle”, Stanley began. The managing director became curious and inquired what the discovery was. Stanley went ahead and told him about the calculations he had discovered to be wrong in the production of the hydraulic fluid and how badly they had affected the quality of the fluid. He also advised that since there was no way of amending these mistakes, the fluid should be discarded and not be distributed. After hearing Stanley’s discovery and advice, the managing director went quiet. He was thinking. After some minutes of quietness, he spoke.
“These are minor errors which will not affect the quality of the fluid very much. We are talking of over ten million Naira and the company cannot bear such loss because its employees failed to do their jobs well. I warn that you never discuss this with anyone else. The scheduled distribution of that fluid will go on as planned”, the managing director said ass**tively. Stanley couldn’t believe his boss’s insensitivity towards endangering people’s lives. He didn’t even ask to know what the implication of distributing the fluid would be before making his decision. That got Stanley angry, but he held himself. He thought using technical terms would help his boss appreciate the situation better.
“Sir, by these calculations, the foam resistance, the viscosity, the oxidation stability and the thermal stability of this fluid are affected. It is very detrimental letting this product out there especially for the people who would use it as automobile brake fluid or in hydraulic jacks. Please sir, reconsider your stand. The company mustn’t necessarily bear the loss alone. The staff who made these mistakes can be surcharge as well. Consider the lives that would be put at risk”, Stanley was saying when the managing director cut in. “Shut that trash and get out of my office. What do you know about cost? And I warn you again, let me not hear about this elsewhere”, the managing director snapped at Stanley.
What happened next?
TOCHUKWU ANOZIE
Find out!!!