Is OTHER wrong in the post ? POST : So I work at a company that drives to different clients to service equipment. I work with Mike (fake name). Mike is a new hire who comes with me to everything I do. All of the techs in our company are under our manager John (fake name). Thus I don't really have any "authority" to tell Mike what to do, but he'll still listen to me.

A store's fan was not working. After we isolated the problem to the fan itself, I told Mike to get the step ladder. In case you don't know, when you are on a step ladder, you're not supposed to stand on the top two steps. You're also not supposed to overreach. People break both of those rules regularly, almost always without injury. I was at the highest safe step and I could barely reach the fan. I would have had to break one of those rules to access it.

I called John.

&gt; Me: "Hey John, I'm at [store] with Mike and we need the bigger ladder."

&gt; John: "The one in your truck should be fine."

&gt; Me: "It's not."

&gt; John: "Did you go all the way up?"

&gt; Me: "I went as far up as I am supposed to go. I can't reach it safely from there."

&gt; John: "For fuck's sake, u/AdorablePreference. Let me speak to Mike."

He apparently told Mike to "just fucking do it." Mike wanted to do it. I just said "no you're not" and I took the ladder down. Long story short, John drove over to fix it himself (in the unsafe way) as Mike and I watched.

Am I the asshole?

tldr I defied my boss because of a possibly unnecessary safety rule. I also brought another employee into the conflict.