"What coaching?" Jessica asked before she could stop herself.
Tom looked at her. The question was fair, and that fairness made it harder to endure. "I gave Brad verbal feedback," he said. "I told him to make customers feel more welcome. I thought he understood."
"Did you document it?" Margaret asked.
"Not consistently."
"Did you confirm whether the affected customers had been contacted?"
"No."
For several seconds, the only sound was a faint fan inside the wall-mounted display. Kesha could see Brad studying the tabletop as if it held an answer he had overlooked. She had once been a middle manager herself, and she knew how easily good sales figures could convince people that the manner of obtaining them did not need scrutiny. That knowledge did not lessen Tom's responsibility. It showed exactly where the organization had taught the wrong lesson.
"Mr. Hutchinson," Kesha said, "I'd like to hear your perspective. Not a defense prepared for the camera. Tell us what you believed you were doing."
Brad looked up. "I've been in sales twenty years. You learn quickly who is likely to buy, because you can't spend hours with every visitor. I used appearance and behavior to make those decisions. I thought I was being efficient."
"And today?" Patricia asked.
"Today I made the wrong call."
Kesha waited. He had described the result, not the cause. "Would the same treatment have been acceptable if I weren't an executive?"
Brad swallowed. "No."
"Would you have apologized this quickly if I were a nurse, a schoolteacher, or an unemployed person asking what a car costs?"
He looked toward Jessica. "Probably not," he admitted.
The honesty startled Tom, but Jessica did not seem surprised. Brad had defended his methods for so long that naming them felt almost like hearing a confession from a stranger. He rubbed his hands together beneath the table and went on, his voice lower. "I convinced myself I was protecting the store. I know now that I was deciding who deserved an opportunity before listening to them."
David Park reminded the room that an admission did not replace a formal review, particularly with public recordings circulating and earlier complaints involving customers who had not been interviewed. Margaret agreed, noting that systemic problems could not be resolved by making one employee the face of everything a company had permitted. Her office would need to examine the training materials, evaluation incentives, and reporting structure as well as the events of the afternoon.
Brad looked as if he had expected a verdict. Instead he was being confronted with a process that could continue long after the viral clip stopped circulating. He asked if he was going to lose his job. Margaret told him that he would be placed temporarily away from customer-facing duties while the investigation proceeded, with pay status and representation governed by company policy. She also made clear that the decision was not a public performance for online spectators.
"You're entitled to a fair process," she said. "So were the customers who complained about you. We'll need to hear both."