Have you ever had a boss who told you do to something that was technically the right thing to do but you knew that actually following that rule would make the work day much more difficult? If not following the rule had minimal consequences, would you follow it anyway, or would you do things the easier way?

In this story, one construction worker is in this exact situation. He tries to explain the issue, but when the contractor insists that rules must be followed, he decides to play along.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Must keep the plastic zipped at all times!!!

Scene: large construction site, with half the building finished, and half the building under construction. The main stairs to get around are in the finished side of the building.

The GC has installed plastic dust barriers…AKA:taped plastic sheets up, and taped a zipper onto the plastic.

Typically, the zipper does not get zippered, to allow everyone to walk around easier. This morning however, they were on a roll…

Leaving it upzipped seemed like the wise thing to do.

I was carrying a 10 foot A-frame through the plastic, with another couple guys close behind carrying more equipment.

I left the plastic unzipped.

The GC yelled to “zipper the door!”

That’s a lot of zipping!

I told him I had others right behind me.

To which he responded “they can unzip it themselves “.

Roger that, sir!

I have zipped and I zipped that door 100 times today. Anytime anyone goes through, I zip it back up. It’s about to fall off the wall right now.

So, would the malicious part be if it actually does fall off the wall, because right now it seems that complying is only making his life more difficult.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It might be worth it in the long run.

One person shares their experience with how these plastic zipper sheets are supposed to work.

But another person thinks the plastic should stay unzipped all day.

There really can be a huge mess if the plastic is left unzipped.

It’s easier to prevent a mess than to clean up a mess.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.