“Why not?”
“Because this office needs to work for someone whose incident never trends.”
That became another internal principle. Meridian, meanwhile, continued its reforms under independent monitoring. Its stock recovered gradually after investors saw that the company’s federal contracts remained intact subject to compliance obligations. Customer-satisfaction numbers improved. More important to Marcus, complaint-resolution time fell and the percentage of complaints reviewed centrally rose sharply.
The numbers were not perfect. No serious system was. But the movement was real. Patricia Carter met Marcus publicly for the first time since the hearing at an industry conference in Denver.
They shook hands in a corridor between panels.
“How much do you hate us now?” she asked.
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
“That is a dangerous opening question for a compliance executive.”
Patricia smiled tiredly.
“I’ve had a long year.”
“So have I.”
She became serious.
“We deserved the review.”
Marcus said nothing.
“We didn’t deserve every headline.”
“No organization does.”
“That’s generous.”
“It isn’t generosity. Headlines are not due process.”
Patricia nodded.
“We found more than I expected.”
“I know the public findings.”
“I mean culturally.”
Marcus waited.
“We taught people to move passengers. Efficiently. Quickly. We said customer care mattered, but every operational reward told managers that delays were failure.”
“And verification takes time.”
“Exactly.”
“So employees learned to resolve ambiguity fast.”
“Yes.”
“Usually in favor of authority.”
Patricia looked at him.
“You could have written our review.”
“No. I was recused.”
She laughed.
“I walked into that.”
They stood near the conference-room doors as attendees passed around them. Patricia lowered her voice.
“Sandra asked for my email.”
Marcus’s expression changed.