Question

You are employed by a small land surveying company. Your boss is a licensed land surveyor. You are currently a survey assistant working on a two-person field crew with a party chief. It is late on Friday afternoon. Your party chief is excited to call it a day and go home for the weekend. You are posting a monument (i.e., an iron post). The soil is hard and for some reason the iron post bends and cannot be pulled out. Your party chief suggests that you burry the bent iron post deeper into the ground and post an offset witness a few feet away in much softer soil where you do not anticipate any issues. Would it be a good idea to follow the party chief’s instructions? What kind of implications could these actions cause in the future? What professional duties are in conflict here? What should be your first course of action?

Answer 1

1)No,it wouldn't be a good idea to follow the party chief's instruction.It is not ethically correct.

Implications in future

Following are the implications these actions could cause in future

a)The actual point need to be transfered again from the offset point

b)Offset point may be in the neighbours land.It is not acceptable to fix the monument in the neighbours land.

C)If the Landlord finds the burried iron post in future while excavating,it may create unnecessary confusion.

Professional duties in conflict

Following are the professional duties in conflict here

a)The party chief is not serious about accuracy and this is not a professional approach

b)Burying the iron post just to hide from the owner/firm is not a professional approach

First course of action

First course of action should be removing the bent iron post,rectify it and insert it again with more care.