Chapter 7 - THE OFFICE MANAGER
Claire blamed Thomas Reed for pushing her outside.
Then she saw the security memo.
At 1:51 p.m., Thomas had texted Corporate Security:
CLAIRE IS INSIDE AND DISTRESSED. KEEP HER AWAY FROM PUBLIC ENTRANCE.
Security director replied:
Board counsel says remove all involved executives from premises until crowd disperses.
Thomas asked:
INCLUDING CLAIRE?
Answer:
YES. LIABILITY ISSUE.
He interpreted that literally.
Poorly.
Thomas later said:
“I thought the garage exit was blocked.”
It was not.
He had been panicking.
He apologized.
Claire wanted someone easy to hate.
Thomas was not it.
The company later changed protest protocols:
safe internal shelter,
private exit routing,
no forcing targeted employees toward demonstrators.
Claire accepted his apology.
Not because he did nothing wrong.
May you like
Because mistakes under pressure were different from plans built under pressure.
That distinction would matter again.
