I work in an auto body repair shop in Salt Lake City. I employ two technicians named Jimmy and Sammy respectively. Two days ago Jimmy and Sammy were working on a 1998 Honda Civic when I overheard them arguing about the function of the coolant recovery system. It seems Jimmy said that the function of the coolant recovery system is to keep excess coolant from being lost. Sammy, however, argued that the function of the coolant recovery system is to return coolant when the cooling system goes into a vacuum.

I have been in this business for a long time and have had many different technicians working for me. The one thing I have noticed as a consistent theme running through all the various combinations of technicians is that they all like to argue and they all hate to admit they are wrong. Jimmy and Sammy are no different in this respect. So I had to think very carefully as to whether I wanted to intervene on this argument of theirs. I certainly did not want to bruise either of their egos. A wounded pride could cause the relational dynamic to change for the worse in this collision repair business in Salt Lake City and that is the last thing I want. I am in the business of putting food on my table after all.

Of course I knew that both Jimmy and Sammy were correct. Keeping excess coolant from being lost and returning coolant when the cooling system goes into a vacuum are both functions of a coolant recovery system. But I also knew that I had nothing to gain by intervening in their argument. I risked having both of them angry with me. My solution, I left the auto body shop and went to lunch. I figured by the time I got back they would be having a different argument entirely.