Chapter 8 - Jessica Was Following A Secret List
HR’s investigation into Jessica uncovered another piece.
Jessica had not randomly decided Margaret did not belong upstairs.
She had been given a private “restricted visitor” list that morning.
Margaret Carter’s name was on it.
The instruction said:
Do not permit access to Executive 41 without Thomas Reed authorization.
Jessica had followed the restriction.
But not the company’s visitor policy.
She should have verified Margaret’s appointment and called executive security.
Instead she mocked her, tore the letter, and threatened removal.
Her conduct remained her responsibility.
Still, someone had prepared her to stop Margaret.
Thomas’s assistant admitted printing the list.
Thomas had told her a “confused elderly shareholder” might appear with invalid documents.
Jessica later told HR:
“I thought she was nobody.”
That sentence became central to her disciplinary review.
Margaret’s identity as Alexander’s mother should not have been what made the treatment unacceptable.
Alexander said exactly that.
“If she had been anyone else, would tearing her appointment into pieces have been fine?”
Jessica had no answer.
Margaret asked Alexander not to fire her merely to perform outrage.
“Investigate what she did. Apply the policy you would apply if I weren’t your mother.”
He did.
Jessica was terminated after review based on repeated documented incidents of humiliating visitors and bypassing verification procedures.
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Not because she insulted the CEO’s mother.
Because the pattern showed she had misused her role.
