A supervisor complained that formal recovery periods would be abused.
Diane replied, "People already work twelve hours when the line is down. We're talking about making it legal to drink water without looking over our shoulder."
Another manager said flexibility was needed because every fault event differed.
Ethan agreed.
"Then write flexibility around minimum safety requirements, not around whether a supervisor likes the person taking the break."
Vanessa listened.
She took notes.
She did not speak until Melissa asked her directly whether executive management would accept a policy that could temporarily reduce output during long fault responses.
Vanessa looked around the table.
"If a process depends on exhausted people pretending they don't need water, the output number is lying. Write the real policy."
Diane glanced at Ethan.
He gave no reaction.
That was the first test.
The second came a week later.
Grant Whitmore had continued working during the audit under restrictions. He was no longer permitted to approve historical-report revisions, but he still ran daily operations.
He hated Ethan's new title.
More than the title, he hated the reporting line.
Ethan now had direct access to Vanessa without Grant controlling context.
During a morning review, Grant presented a slide showing line-two output improvement as a result of revised operating discipline.
Ethan interrupted.
"That's not what caused it."
The room went silent.
Grant looked at him.
"Excuse me?"
"The throughput increase came from Maria Chen's clamp redesign. Changeover scrap dropped, which shortened inspection holds."
Grant's mouth tightened.
"The redesign was implemented under the operating-discipline initiative."
"Implementation and invention aren't the same thing."
Grant looked toward Vanessa.
This was the moment.
Everyone knew it.
Three weeks earlier, Vanessa would have heard insubordination.
Now she looked at the source note on the screen.
"Maria's name should be on the slide," she said.
Grant's expression changed.
"Vanessa, board materials can't become a list of every employee who touched a process."
"Then distinguish material contribution from participation. This one is material."
Ethan said nothing.
He had tested the promise.
Vanessa had passed once.
Not forever.
Once.
The independent review continued for five weeks.
By the fourth week, the evidence against Grant had become more serious than credit theft.
The audit team found that management bonus metrics included cost reductions and recovery improvements tied to specific operational initiatives. In several cases, Grant had reclassified existing employee-developed improvements as projects launched under his leadership after the fact.
That did not create fake savings. The savings were real.
But it changed who appeared responsible for producing them.