She asked the company's compensation team to review the incentives that had made fast high-ticket sales seem more important than good service. She also insisted that the fifteen-year-old complaint software be updated so repeated reports about the same behavior were not buried as unrelated incidents. The changes were specific, documented, and reviewed by people who had not created the old system.
For Walter's sake, she wanted a company that treated people decently. For the employees' sake, she also wanted rules that made decency possible without costing them their jobs. It was not enough to celebrate Tyler's kindness if the next Tyler still risked punishment for the same act.
A month after her visit, Dana called Hank Doyle into the office. He arrived looking worried because security employees were rarely invited to management meetings unless something had gone wrong. Instead, Dana told him that his wages were being adjusted following a security compensation review, and that she wanted him to help shape a new visitor-assistance protocol.
"You've worked here twelve years," she said. "You understand the building and the people. You should have been included in decisions about how visitors are treated long ago."
Hank rubbed his chin. "I wasn't perfect that day. I heard Mr. Keller being rude and didn't step in right away."
"Then help us write the guidance you wish you'd had," Dana said. "We need security officers who know when to support staff, when to protect visitors, and when not to let somebody's anger become an excuse for mistreating people."
When he told Margaret later, she smiled. "Walter would have said we were long overdue."
Hank laughed. "He might also have said you could have given me a better uniform years ago."
"He would have said that, too."
Tyler's apprenticeship began the following month. His first day started in the service department's training bay, where Luis introduced him to a technician named Nora Ellis and explained that the next stage of his education would involve more questions than answers. Tyler had expected the responsibilities to be glamorous because he had waited so long for them. Instead, he spent the morning checking service bulletins and organizing diagnostic equipment.
Nora watched him work. "Some apprentices try to impress me by grabbing a wrench before they understand the job," she said. "You don't seem to have that problem."
"My grandmother says it's expensive to be wrong when somebody depends on you," Tyler replied.
"Your grandmother sounds like a good supervisor."
"She'd tell you she already has enough people to supervise."
Nora grinned. "Then we're going to get along."
On his lunch break Tyler sent a photograph of his new training badge to Denise. The badge did not grant him the right to perform every repair independently, and he knew months of supervised work and examinations lay ahead. That made it more meaningful. It represented a real beginning rather than a favor that would disappear when Margaret's attention moved elsewhere.
Denise called him that evening. "I showed Ruth the picture," she said. "She made me print it so she could put it in her Bible beside the car papers."
"She doesn't have to save everything."
"You tell her that. She saved your first kindergarten drawing, too."