“That isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
“I know.”
She waited.
Evan finally said:
“I’m not the person you need forgiveness from.”
Her eyes moved across the factory floor.
Thirty employees.
She understood.
“I know.”
The new chief executive arrived in March.
Her name was Andrea Keene.
Forty-eight.
Former operations president at a competing industrial controls manufacturer.
On her first full day, she did not call an executive strategy session.
She spent eight hours on the plant floor.
She asked calibration technicians what slowed them down.
Asked shipping workers what records they distrusted.
Asked maintenance which repairs had been deferred.
When she reached Evan’s bench, she found his paper notebook beside the computer.
“You’re Ror.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard about the notebooks.”
“That good or bad?”
“Depends.”
She picked one up.
“May I?”
Evan nodded.
She flipped through several pages.
Lot numbers.
Temperatures.
Fixture IDs.
Notes.
“You really do this every day?”
“Yes.”
“No one requires it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“So I can answer questions later.”
Andrea closed the notebook.
“Seems your company has had trouble answering questions later.”
Evan looked at her.
“Yes.”
She smiled faintly.
“Keep the notebooks.”
The board created a new position several weeks later.