It is getting bumpy - enough to spill the coffee and the captain thinks it will probably stay that way. He says to the F/O "Ask ATC for flight level 350 and we'll try and get out of this stuff".
F/O looks at his watch and says can we wait another five minutes when we will be on a new sector controller and he won't have to coordinate with the one we are on now?
Captain grits his teeth and thinks: Do I say do as your bloody well told and ask for F/L 350 NOW.
Or does he think OK I'm not in the mood to go through a big explanation of the pros and cons of climbing or staying and I don't want to make him feel that his opinion is not needed here, so I'll just say "That's fine by me just give ATC a call when you feel the time is right"
The passengers start to throw up one by one and the captain thinks what a weak kneed idiot I am for giving in to the F/O just to make him feel good.
The F/O thinks: I like flying with old Joe - at least he lets me make the decisions on my leg.
If you were a ashen faced fare paying passenger, or a harassed flight attendant stumbling in the aisle, tell me which option would you like the captain to take?
If there was one thing I hated when I was in the LH seat was this reluctance by some type of first officers to carry out a straight forward request without argueing the toss. If it is a definate safety of flight matter - then few captains would (should?) resent a F/O speaking out in a measured manner.
But it is all too easy to incur a simmering resentment from either side of the cockpit when a direct request is made and the other side jacks up or deliberately delays an action.
CRM courses rarely cover these small aspects of pilot behaviour which are so important in terms of a good working atmosphere.
Instead we hear endless repeat stories of CRM derring do in USA where a DC10 lost lots of systems and the cockpit workload was shared between a bunch of guys up front to almost a happy ending.