Q: My recycling is collected weekly, almost always by the same driver. I actually watch the pickup about 50 percent of the time, as I have two young boys who like to watch the truck. The driver frequently stops to talk on his cellphone — one time talking for five minutes in the truck while it idled in front of my house — and has taken magazines from my recycling and spent a minute or two reading them. Should I report this to the carting company, or is it none of my business how he gets his job done?— M.S., Highland Park, Ill.
A: I just received an imaginary query from a recycling-truck driver about a mother he often sees standing around with her kids watching him work instead of teaching the kids French or sky diving or otherwise actively engaging as a parent. He wonders if he should report her. What do you think?
I think not. Nobody in any job spends 100 percent of his work time doing it, and that has long been so. In 1775, before the advent of the personal phone call or online shopping, Dr. Johnson observed: “It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man would be a Judge, upon the condition of being obliged to be totally a Judge.”
I’ll have more on that after I grab a quick coffee and read a bit of the paper.
OK, I’m back. Despite these little breaks, the tasks of the world are accomplished. It is up to the recycling company to determine workloads, a process that may well include observing its drivers. But if this guy can finish his route and still yak on the phone, good luck to him.
I would respond differently if you’d seen him driving across your lawn or dealing guns and cigarettes out of his truck — that is, endangering the community. And there are jobs that require continuous activity while on duty: surgeon, snow-plow driver. There were darker times when it was so common for police officers to park in some out-of-the-way place and nap on the job that a neologism emerged to describe it: cooping. You might report sluggards in these sorts of jobs. But in the case you witnessed, you’ve no reason to think the guy is failing in his duties. Let him be.
Q: The cleaning woman we hired through a service did great work, but I began to suspect that she was stealing prescription pain pills from our medicine cabinet, although they could have been taken by a temporary cleaner, babysitter or even a friend. I told the service she’d done a wonderful job but that we found someone cheaper. I was hesitant to endanger the livelihood of this single mother of five but did not want her in my house and even rekeyed our locks. Should I have confronted her directly? Should I have told her boss about my suspicions? — M.P., St. Louis
A: Even lacking evidence that would stand up in a court of law, you need not employ someone you reasonably believe is stealing. But while your actions were prudent, they were imperfect.
You should indeed have spoken to — not “confronted” — her before acting. I admire your reluctance to deprive this single mother of her livelihood, but you should have discussed this with her boss. If the cleaner is a habitual thief, what happens to her other clients? You needn’t have put forth anything as hard-edged as an accusation, but your suspicions combined with the experience of her other clients could have produced a clearer picture and included something like due process.
Update: When M.P. stopped using this cleaner, the pain pills stopped disappearing.
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