Question

You are the general manager of the Glass Shop in Houston. This is a large retail and wholesale establishment that assembles windows for new construction and has 30 employees. It is now 1:00 pm and you just found out on the radio & TV that there are rioting people (primarily students) only one mile away but moving toward your store. There is anger against businesses because of the unemployment problem. The rioters are currently looting and damaging local businesses, setting fires, breaking windows, and looting merchandise. Apparently the rioters have already disabled community phone lines and cell phone towers. So far, no one has been seriously injured.

You have about $500,000 in window inventory in the outside rear yard area that is fenced off. It cannot be quickly moved inside. Loss of this uninsured inventory would place the company in a serious financial situation.

If inventory is left outside unattended it will probably be damaged. However, if your employees remain at work, the looters may not bother with your company, but then again you are not sure as they could be accidentally hurt. Employees park their cars inside the fence. If everyone leaves the store you suspect they will break in and damage the expensive inventory. You are not certain which of the scenarios will occur. You have only 30 minutes to make a decision. What will you do?

Answer 1

In this situation I will immediately inform the police about the issue and ask for help from them, this is the first thing which is necessary to be done, but in case the police cannot come for help because of the riot. I would then ask all my employees to protect the inventory from the rioters. I would request the employees to continue with their work and do not get distracted by then even if they pass nearby and in case if they take action against our shop I would request all my employees to request them not to touch our shop and if still they tried to damage our shop it is our moral duty to prevent the loss of inventory as far as possible and if the situation finally becomes out of control we have no option but to leave the space and save our life from them.

Please up vote this answer.