Does This Milk Shake Taste Funny

Characters Involved:
George - middle class college student who has very little interest in
continuing his education. George is more concerned about his dating
girlfriend (he would like to marry her) and his car. For that reason, George
jumped on this opportunity to be employed for a summer stint at a local
unionized Eastern Dairy plant. He is very happy about his pay and enjoys his
co-workers company at work. He values his job because of it.
Paul - coworker of George, seen as the leader/supervisor of the night shift
cohort, despite absence of title. He is seen as goal oriented despite of his
easy going demeanor, as he tries to make work more fun by adding a lot of
play time in between.
Major Issue:
There have been maggots growing in the milk shake mixes and when the
mixes are poured into the production vats through connected pipes, the
filters would get clogged up by the maggots (solid matter) and the machine
would then have to be halted. In order to meet production quota for the
night, Paul decided to give the order to George to remove the filters and let
the maggots into the mixing vats. Paul justifies the decision by telling George
that the maggots would be completely crushed into insignificant pieces by
the homogenization and pasteurization processes, and any germs and
bacteria would be destroyed, thus leaving the end product safe for human
consumption. George is faced with the ultimate ethical decision to proceed
with Pauls plan or become whistleblower.
Analysis:
On one hand, George feels there is a huge sense of social responsibility him imaging children drinking maggot contaminated milk. On the other
hand, he feels that his job is on the line, and going against Paul and selling
out his coworkers, then bringing in county health inspectors and upper
management, would be a terrible start if he wants to continue to work at the
dairy plant. From the description, he possibly feels the pay and the working
environment might validate him quitting school and start a career working

there.
If he was to be ethical about his actions, he would be placed under more
direct negative social pressure because he probably can no longer work
along with Paul and the rest of the night shift crew. There is no certainty
what management reaction would be - despite George saving countless
children from drinking bad milk shakes, he would have not only wasted
company money and resources, but not fulfilled the nights production quota.
Not only there will be uncertainty regarding managements reactions, but
what if management knew about this all along and will just cover it up?
Also, it is worth it to become the whistleblower? If George was to say no to
Paul then report the entire thing to management, it would result in a large
scale investigation. Does George want to be known to the entire world as
someone who couldnt keep his mouth shut? Many employers are skeptical
about hiring whistleblowers, and many employees are skeptical about
working along side with them. Is a pat on the back worth it to George to be
ostracized from work and society?
In addition, is the concept of what you dont know, cant hurt you really bad?
The famous proverb - If you do not know about a problem or a misdeed, you
will not be able to make yourself unhappy by worrying about it. From the
description of Pauls reaction to the problem, it seems that maggots do
occasionally gets contaminated into the milk shakes. So, there might have
been maggot laced milk shakes all along and no one has gotten sick from it,
because of the treatment processes the dairy products receive postproduction. If there was to be the case, the management would already
know of it and deem Georges whistleblowing unnecessary as any sort of
food investigations, regardless of county or FDA would be detrimental to its
investors and owners. (Economic responsibility)
Causes:
- Lack of quality control - there are no quality controls noted for the night
shift.
- Lack of manager/supervisor - there is no individual for the night shift who is
there to make and be responsible for his/her decision.
- Lack of batch/order tracking system - George does not know where the milk
shakes are going.
- Male oriented workplace - Masculinity has traits that lean more toward

accomplishment of goals and ambition and has less emphasis on human

needs and caring. Workplace diversity can be considered, but females are
usually less willing to work graveyard shifts than men. Family issues can be
one major factor in their decisions to not work nights.
Recommendations:
- The company should hire external auditor for third-party quality control
monitoring.
- Construction of better storage facilities that does not attract maggots.
- Implement batch/order tracking system - serial numbers on the products
that can be scanned, tracked, and recorded.
Conclusion:
It is doubtful that George would follow through with his moment of ethical
enlightenment, because as a college student with a girlfriend and a car, he
would be more willing to cooperate with Paul to keep his position. Especially
this has been his best job yet, so he has zero incentive to potentially lose it.
Also, as a true on the spot decision, George would most likely trust Pauls
proposal, especially that it sounds scientific enough.