My team mates are not responsible for my safety ... they're responsible for abiding by the agreements we made when we became team mates. That includes providing me with a certain level of redundancy if it should become necessary ... but the decisions leading to that necessity are mine to own.
There we part company, I guess we live in very different worlds. I've spent my life assuring diving safety and living in a community of divers who willingly agree to be mutually dependent, and who can count on each other. At the core that's what it is all about for us.
I doubt if a fraction of one percent of the dives I've made were conducted from a commercial dive boat and, even then, perhaps only a handful were with insta-buddies, or for that matter made with individuals in whom I did not have complete confidence in their ability to both decide and act on my behalf in my best interests.
My team mate is not responsible if I ignore turn pressure and run out of gas ... I am.
I am responsible to indicate to my team mate that I am at bingo air, as well as to monitor my team mates' air consumption (as they do mine). If you chose to dive differently, that's fine, that's your business, but I'd not dive with you and you'd never be permitted to dive under the auspices of any institution or operation that I was responsible for.
My team mate is not responsible if I exceed my training or comfort level and put myself in a situation I don't know how to get out of ... I am.
Since my team mate could suffer significant consequences as a result of my making a bad decision in those areas, he has responsibilities for me and I for him.
My team mate is not responsible for me deciding to have a beer with lunch, knowing that I have a dive in three hours ... I am.
Once again, if you want to dive solo, or with someone who does not care, or someone who feels that beer is more important (and there appear to be quite a few, in each category for you to chose from) ... knock yourself out, but you've not diving with me, or auspices of any institution or operation that I was responsible for if you had a beer with lunch, sorry.
Likewise, I am not responsible for the decisions and actions of my team mate ... he or she is. If I can't trust them to make responsible decisions regarding their own safety and welfare, I shouldn't be diving with them.
If we are not willing to be responsible for the decisions and actions of our team mates, then we are not a team and we should not be diving together. If I can't trust them to make responsible decisions regarding their
and my safety and welfare, I shouldn't be diving with them.
I am not my buddy's nanny ... nor is he mine.
Then you are naught but two divers who are accidentally in the same body of water at that same time. If that's how you like to dive, that's your business, but I'd not have any part of it.
Students are a whole different situation ... but they were not part of the scenario asked by the OP ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I see students as junior team members whose ability to be of assistance to others is somewhat reduced, thus the extra care that is taken for conditions and staffing.