Unedited
10/28/09
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Reasonable Care

To work with reasonable care is to mindfully work focusing on the work at hand without letting emotions distract ones concentration. Careless work literally means a care-less attitude. Care-less work has minimal forces on the details of work leading to shoddy work and sometimes negligent work.

To work with reasonable care is to work at a pace where quality in action can be maintained with minimal errors. For example, when a mechanic rebuilds an engine he or she must proceed methodically powerfully focused on the details of work. Rebuilding engines requires hundreds of steps and each step must be performed exactly or the engine will soon break down. If a mechanic does not carefully wipe dirt off the engine parts, those parts will have a shorter service life than clean parts. If the mechanic disregards the orientation of parts such as pistons the engine will be noisy and wear out rapidly. If nuts and bolts are not tightened to exact specification they will come loose or break.

Mathematically speaking the more a mechanic is careful in his work the higher will be the quality of the product and the longer it will last.

Not all automotive customers want high quality work and they will seek out a mechanic who charges comparatively little. The customer is more interested in speed of work and the ultimate price. Remember the three rules of service work: 1. Speed 2. Price 3. Quality. You can have two of the three choices but not all the choices in the same instant. You can have price and quality but the mechanic will work on the project slowly, when he can. Craftsmen and artisans’ can produce great things at an affordable price but you will have to wait. You can have fast work at a good price but the quality will be substandard. If the mechanic works fast he will invariable outpace reasonable care in his hurry. Thus, the ethicacy of care bears a relation to what arrangement of the three considerations is chosen.