When someone insists they know better, sometimes the best way to teach them is to let them try.

What would you do if your crew complained that your proven method was outdated, and your boss told you to let them figure it out themselves?

Would you stand your ground?

Or would you step back and let the lesson play out in real time?

In the following story, one seasoned towboat operator finds himself dealing with this very situation.

Here’s what he did.

OK Boss, we can try it their way.

Let me say up front, I loved my job in the barge towing industry.

After 50 years in the industry, I have done it all, and done all of it almost every way possible.

I know how long it will take to build tow, connect the barges together after clearing them out of the fleet moorings, but mainly I know the easiest and quickest way.

Our story begins on a nice, hot summer day.

Three barges need to clear out for a refinery run to pick up product.

I explain to the crew where our barges are in the fleet moorings and my plan on how we/I will get them out to build the tow.

Seems simple right?

I’ve done it multiple times before, but it’s hot and keep getting feedback form one of the hands about how if we do it his way it would take “way less time.”

He decided to do it HR’s way.

I know better and shut them down, and we do it my way, takes about 90 minutes, and away we go.

Heard some grumbling from the crew about being a ******* and not being open to new and better ideas; I’ve heard it before and forgot about it.

Two weeks later, after returning to work, I got called into HR(well, what we had for HR at the time) about how I was inflexible and not open to new and “better” ways of doing things.

I was told I should listen to the crew, and perhaps I could learn some “new and improved” ways to towboat.

The day arrives, get orders, same 3 barges to put together for refinery run, same deck crew, so let’s try some HR advice on building a tow.

Of course, the crew had their own way of doing things.

Ask the crew, “How do you guys want to do this?”

Tell them where the barges are and ask which one we should clear up first, and where do you want to build the tow?

Ninety minutes in, we have 1 barge cleared, and temps are high 90’s.

Quiet hand says on the radio, “It didn’t take this long last week.”

I said someone went to the office and said I was taking too long and would not listen to better ideas.

Do you guys have any more?

Let’s take 10 for a water break, and we’ll get back to finishing.

After the break, the crew came up and admitted their way was taking longer, and could we just get it over with and “do it your way?”

I asked just to be sure I did not do anything to disrupt your plan or make it harder.

I don’t want to be called into the office again next week for not giving you guys a chance.

To prevent it from happening again, he suggested a change.

Took another 60 minutes to finish and get underway.

Told the crew to cool off, and we will have a meeting about what happened.

I explained that if they wanted, before every job we could have a little informal meeting to discuss what we/I was planning and I could accept their input before we started.

They thought that was a great idea, except that it was a form of work, and the meetings slowly went away.

A few years after this incident, one of the alphabet agencies that regulate and tell us how to do our jobs made those meetings mandatory, and they had to have paper forms filled out in duplicate.

Wow! At least they learned quickly.

Let’s see how Reddit readers relate to this story.

This person has some thoughts on retirement.

Here’s someone who had a good boss.

As this person points out, after 50 years, he must have a lot of stories.

This chef finds himself in similar situations.

Sometimes, that’s the easiest way.

It sounds like those guys needed to be taught a lesson.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.