Within twelve hours, there was an e-mail message from Rita in every executive’s in-box calling a dinner meeting at a nearby restaurant in North Beach for the following Friday evening. She indicated that the subject of the meeting would be resolving Rich’s 360-degree feedback discussion. She also announced that she had already checked with everyone’s assistants to make sure they were free. “I’ll look forward to seeing you all there,” the note closed.

After seeing Rita’s expression as she left the staff meeting, no one dared complain.

Three months earlier, it would have been ludicrous to think that the Telegraph executive team was dreading a meeting to discuss a difficult topic. But now it was a reality. And no one was dreading the experience more than Rich.

Not one to shirk responsibilities or avoid unpleasantness, the CEO arrived fifteen minutes early. He found the small, private banquet room at La Felce and sat at the long table by himself. In his hands he held the faded yellow list that had been taped to his desk for the past five years. He had removed it and brought it with him in the hope that it might provide some level of guidance. Though he had vowed to hide his demeanor from his people, Rich felt defeated.

The next ten minutes ticked by one second at a time. Finally, Tom, Rita, and Mark shuffled in, followed within minutes by Barry and Janet, who had another three weeks before her departure.

Tom spoke first. “Okay, let’s get started.”

“Where’s Jamie?” Though he had asked the question, Rich seemed slightly disinterested in the answer, lost in his own thoughts.

That’s probably why he didn’t hear Rita when she said, “He’s packing his office.”

Rich frowned, as though he didn’t speak Rita’s language. “Excuse me?”

Rita clarified, matter-of-factly. “He’s leaving the firm.”

Suddenly her words registered with Rich. “What?”

“That’s right. We decided it was time for him to go.”

Rich interrupted. “You fired him?”

“Well, not exactly,” she explained. “We went in to confront him this afternoon, but before we mentioned anything about him leaving, he resigned.”

Rich could see that she was relieved. But he was confused. “Just like that?” He thought it over for a second, and then asked the obvious question. “Don’t you think you should tell me about something like that?”

“We are telling you.”

Rich was a little annoyed. “I mean beforehand.”

Tom jumped in. “Come on, Rich. Ever since the Napa off-site, everything’s been so bizarre. You haven’t been yourself these last two months. So last week Rita and I decided that we had to deal with all of this right away.” He paused. “And we did something that we’re not too proud of.”

Rich looked confused, and concerned.

Rita explained. “We went to Sophia, Jamie’s communication specialist, and made her show us the raw data from the 360 feedback.”

Rich winced at the idea of breaching the anonymity of the data.

“Believe us on this one,” Tom defended. “It was the right thing to do.”

Rita continued. “Get this. The words trust and dogmatic were mentioned in your entire feedback report only once. Once,” she repeated, holding up her index finger.

Not having thought about the specific nature of the 360 summary report for almost two months, Rich seemed a little confused. Everyone else was smiling. They had obviously discussed all of this before.

“What’s so funny?” their boss asked.

Rita blurted out: “You were the one who mentioned it!” She could see that he needed a little more clarification. “Here is what you wrote about yourself.” She looked down at her notes and read aloud. “‘Sometimes I wonder if I trust them enough. Am I too dogmatic?’” Rita laughed. “None of us wrote anything like that!”

Weeks of stress dissipated in laughter as the team realized the ridiculousness of the circumstances. As everyone settled down, the gravity of the dysfunctional situation hit them.

“So what exactly did he say?” Rich wanted to know.

“Who? Jamie?” Rita asked.

Rich nodded, and Tom jumped in before Rita could respond. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He basically told us that he didn’t think he was a good cultural fit here. And you know what? I think he actually meant it.”

Rita agreed. “Then he shook my hand and Tom’s, and he asked us to apologize to you.” She paused. “That’s pretty much it.”

Rich took it all in, still digesting the entirety of the situation, until something crossed his mind. “Wait a second. How come you guys didn’t speak up during that hellish conversation in Napa? Why did you let me go through all that?”

Janet explained. “Think about it from our perspectives, Rich. We were as shocked as you were, but I assumed that maybe I was the only one who wasn’t pissed at you.” They laughed a little.

Mark chimed in. “Same here. How could we know for sure? And it wasn’t like he made up the data. He just used the parts that you wrote about yourself, which made it that much more credible.”

Tom confessed, “And I have to admit that I didn’t want to put Jamie on the spot, especially in front of you. We all wanted to find a way to help the poor bastard succeed. I certainly wasn’t comfortable accusing him of tweaking the data.”

Rita teased Tom. “Come on, you just didn’t want to have to do the HR job again.”

He laughed. “Anyway, the way I see it, this is largely your fault.” He was looking at Rich, who seemed confused. “You should have insisted on interviewing the guy.” Tom smiled, and then added, “And I’m only half joking.”

Rich nodded.

Mark asked a question that everyone was thinking. “So what’s a guy like Jamie going to do now?”

Rita rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure a guy like that has a backup plan.”

Little did they know.