Putting The Decision Upon Your Shoulders

(A coworker and I are in the stockroom, making a pallet of salvaged and damaged items to ship back to our store’s returns center. The stockroom manager is chatting with us about a recent inspection. All three of us are very different heights.)

Manager: “So the inspector said the pallets have to be only shoulder high.”

Me: “Wait… what? Measured against whose shoulders?”

Manager: “That’s what I said, but he said they should be shoulder-high to whoever’s dealing with them.”

Coworker: “But… I’m six foot two, [My Name]’s five and a half, and you’re four and a half feet tall… and we all have to deal with the pallets at different times.”

Me: “Are we supposed to magically make the pallets change size, or just assume they should all be shoulder-height to the shortest person in the store?”

Manager: “I know, right? And if we made all the pallets the height of my shoulders, we’d have twice as many to deal with. Congratulations, [Coworker], if anyone asks, you’re now officially the person who handles all the pallets.”