The Night I Got Lucky by Laura Caldwell Page B

a.”
    Roslyn frowned. I was about to do a U-turn and say there was real y nothing wrong with Alexa, it was just a mistake, but Lydia sat straighter. “Ms. Vil a, yes,” she said. “Tel me about her.”
    “It’s just…” How to put this? I hadn’t official y formulated anything about Alexa in my head, I’d just stewed internal y about it for years.
    “Yes?” Lydia said with an encouraging nod. “Go ahead.”
    And it al began to spil from my mouth.
    I told Roslyn and Lydia exactly what I thought—that Alexa was constantly pushing off work on other people, that she didn’t respect authority, that she was rude and patronizing and very difficult to work with.
    Roslyn looked a little troubled, and I wondered if I’d overstepped my new boundaries. I pushed salad around on my plate. The conference room was silent.
    “I might be mistaken,” I said, about to take it al back and head for the hil s. No need to screw up my new position by bringing up Alexa.
    But then Roslyn spoke again. “I suppose I have noticed some of that. I just didn’t realize it was so bad.”
    “Has this been documented?” Lydia asked.
    “We’ve had a couple of issues with her,” Roslyn said. “A few years ago, there was a complaint from a client about a comment she made.”
    “Mmm-hmm,” Lydia murmured.
    “And then of course there was the incident with Miss Martha’s.”

    “Good Lord, that’s right,” Lydia said.
    Miss Martha’s was a famous Chicago bakery, and they’d enlisted us to promote the fact that they’d been chosen by the Today Show for having the best chocolate chip cookies in the country. Alexa was in charge of approving and sending out the press kits to media al over the United States. The title of the kit was supposed to be, “Miss Martha Sacks the Competition!” but Alexa failed to check the final copy properly, and the kits went out reading, “Miss Martha Sucks the Competition!” Needless to say, Miss Martha was no longer a client of Harper Frankwel .
    “That was a grave error,” Roslyn said, “but I believe she’s improved greatly since then.”
    “Has she brought in business?” Lydia asked.
    “No,” Roslyn said, “but—”
    “Wel , you know the policy,” Lydia said. “It’s been in place since Bradley was here.” She gave a wistful smile at his memory. “If there are two written warnings in someone’s personnel file, that person can be terminated.”
    I froze at the word “terminated.” Fire Alexa? I real y just wanted her to get a corporate slap on the wrist, maybe a little demotion.
    “Bil y, you’re her immediate superior for the team,” Lydia continued. “If you truly believe she’s undermining our employees’ ability to do good work, then something should be done. Isn’t that right, Roslyn?”
    Roslyn stil had that slightly troubled look, but she nodded. “It’s your decision, Bil y. But if you decide to do anything, that’s your responsibility, too. You’l have to be the one to tel her.”
    “Me?” I gulped. I had never handled any personnel issues before, much less fired someone. “Oh, I don’t know…I just—”
    “Bil y, it’s your responsibility,” Roslyn repeated.
    I felt power surge through me. It scared me, and yet I loved it. “Al right,” I said. “I’l consider it.”
    I went back to my office and mul ed it over. I thought about how impossible Alexa was to work with. If I found her so difficult, others must too, and if that was the case, then wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if she wasn’t here? The firm wasn’t overloaded right now. We could spare her until we found someone else.
    I went down the hal and spoke to our Human Resources director. Alexa, she told me, was entitled to severance due to the number of years she’d been at the firm. There was no employment contract, but according to our guidelines, it could be anything from two weeks severance to three months. Since she was being terminated for cause, it was my decision, she said. A