Related Dilemmas:

Give Me a Break

Samuel has to decide if it’s fair to offer a family friend a lower price.

“Smoothing” the Factory’s Accounts

An accountant goes too far in helping his company.

For Fear of Not Passing, No Fear of Cheating

A professor has a choice: to uphold school policy or spare two students who, to be sure, had done something terribly wrong.

Cheating Yourself

A college professor must deal with his compassion for a cheater.

The Rules of the Game

A coach must make a disciplinary decide before a championship game.

Archive IconView all dilemmas

Quality Time Better Spent?

After graduating from college with a degree in science, Andy finds a solid job in his profession, married, and had two sons.  Twelve years later, he moves to another company promising him steady advancement within its managerial ranks.  A devoted family man, Andy admires his wife's dedication to raising their boys.  But he also observes that his sons, approaching their teen years, benefit greatly from his fatherly friendship and counsel-especially as they approach what he and his wife realize could prove to be a difficult transitional period in their upbringing.  So he has made a commitment to spend plenty of time with them, playing baseball and helping with their schoolwork.

But he also loves his work, and does well at it.  And it has become apparent that to advance rapidly up the managerial ranks, he needs an MBA.  A nearby university offers the degree in an evening-and-weekend program that would allow him to continue full-time employment, but it would soak up his free time for the next several years and throw most of the family activities into his wife's hands.

Where should Andy focus his attention?

If you would like permission to distribute or reprint this resource please fill out the Permission Request Form by clicking here.

Read more dilemmas: Business Dilemmas | Education Dilemmas | Children and Family Dilemmas | Medical Dilemmas | Philanthropy Dilemmas | Personal Dilemmas | Military Dilemmas

Note: This and other dilemmas on this site come to you without their real-life resolutions.  We encourage you to think for yourself about how you might resolve them, since the nature of each dilemma is highly individualistic.  In sharing these dilemmas, we do not endorse them in any way, but rather offer them for your consideration.