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Funny story about hierarchy / authority questions

Tom_in_CA

Elite Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
20,637
The post about who-to-ask at a church, reminded me of this funny true story :

There was a guy who was traveling out of town on a trip. He had his detector with him. He pulled into a certain town, at a very big downtown park. It was in an older area, and looked perfect for detecting.

As he scanned the park, wondering if md'ing was allowed there, he spotted a park worker off in the distance. A young fellow was emptying garbage cans, and picking up litter. So he walks over the fellow and asks: "Is it ok if I metal detect here ?" The guy shrugs his shoulders and says "I don't see why not".

The man returns to his vehicle to fetch his detector. But he's a little worried about the answer he just got. Because the worker seemed to be a younger college kid just doing a part-time job. And the answer wasn't emphatic enough (sounded like the guy was just guessing). So the md'r was wondering if this was authoritative enough.

But lucky for him, he spotted another worker further away, milling around a maintenance shed. And he could see a city park-worker truck over there. So he hiked to that end of the park, and met an older fellow, that appeared to be a more senior supervisor. He asks "Is it ok to detect here ?". The worker just gave him a blank stare, shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't see why not".

So again the md'r returned to his vehicle to fetch his detector. BUT STILL he was not satisfied with the lack-luster answer he just got. It was not an emphatic "yes you can". And the MD'r began to worry that perhaps this guy also did not have the authority to give approval.

Thus since city hall was only a block away, he decided to go there, and find the head park's person, to make sure. He made his way through the hallways until he found the park's dept. offices. He posed his question to a secretary manning the front desk. At first, she was confused and didn't know what the heck he was talking about. (She was thinking airport security metal detectors or something). But finally she understood. She says "I don't see why not" (or some such variation).

BUT AGAIN, the man was not convinced that she was authoritative enough . Her answer wasn't a clear "yes". And so he asked her : "Is there someone here, head of the entire place, that you can check with ?". The lady excused herself, and went to confer with some higher ups down the hall. She came back a minute later and told the guy : "No you can't".

Ok now, with this ^^ trail of events, do you think anyone would have given 2 hoots if the guy had just gone ?? Of course not. So there's a classic case of : "No one cared UNTIL you asked" :roll:
 
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