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“I can live with that.” I agree, slumping back in my chair.

“Then we make a list for him to review and agree to,” Selene says.

“I’m loving this idea,” Oliver says, standing and strolling out of my office. “I’m grabbing my computer. I’ll take notes.”

I sigh. “Y’all are ridiculous.”

Only for the next hour, Selene, Oliver, and I work on creating a list of rules that Marshall must agree to in order to save my sanity.

When Marshall walks into my office promptly at five p.m., I silence my co-conspirators.

“I’ll print off a copy of this for you to go over later,” Oliver says as he rushes out of my office.

“Good luck!” Selene cheers as she leaves with Oliver, but her voice turns cold when she addresses the newcomer. “Marshall.”

“Thank you,” I yell after them as Marshall settles into one of the chairs that my friends just vacated.

Silence builds between Marshall and me, the only sound in the office being the clatter of my coral typewriter-style keyboard and the hum of the air conditioner blasting through the vents.

When Oliver returns to drop off the folder with our list of “rules” for Marshall, I thank him again as he exists.

“You know, Oliver and Selene are the only people here that I’ve seen you be outright kind to,” Marshall says, finally breaking the silence. “You don’t say thank you or please to anyone else in the building.”

I look up at him sharply, trying to gauge his motivations.

“Your point being?” I question.

He shrugs. “You could stand to be a little nicer to your staff.”

“My staff are here to do a job, Marshall. A job which I pay them handsomely for.” I assert. “I shouldn’t have to coddle them into feeling warm and fuzzy to do their job.”

Silence passes between us before he speaks again, his voice gentle. “Did you know you made an intern cry after your finance meeting yesterday?”

My head whips over from my computer screen to look at him.

“No.”

“You asked her for her opinion on something in the meeting and shut her down when she responded.” He says. “She left the meeting and cried in the bathroom for ten minutes.”

“How do you know this?” I ask, my voice growing softer with each word.

“You have genderless bathrooms.” He shrugs. “I waited for her in the lounge area by the door and checked in on her.”

“You stalked my employee,” I say, my voice hardening.

“No. I checked on her, which she seemed to appreciate.” He replies more defensively.

“Not that it’s your business, but everyone who works for me is treated exceptionally well here. They are all asked to create a flexible schedule of thirty hours a week, either working remotely, in person or some combination thereof. They all receive full benefits and six weeks of vacation time. There are six months of paid parental leave for every employee who is expanding their family, whether they’ve been working here for four months or four years. Interns receive very similar treatment, including the option of either being paid for their work or being offered course credit through their universities.” I snap, frustration growing with each syllable uttered. “My team is treated well and compensated more than fairly. There’s no reason for them to be crying in bathrooms.”

“That doesn’t mean that they feel emotionally safe and secure in their work environment.” He says, holding his ground against me despite my growing annoyance. “Not everyone handles your sharp edges well, Elsie. Sometimes, people need a leader to be soft. They need to see you be vulnerable in order to feel comfortable doing the same in their work.”

“Are you saying I’m a bad leader?” I ask defensively.

“No. Not at all.” He sighs, shaking his head in exasperation. “I’m sorry. I just mean to help.”

“Well, stop helping. It’s not needed.” I say through gritted teeth.

“Elsie! Responding to other people’s needs is like 90 percent of being a parent.” He says, glancing down at my still-typical curvy belly. “You’re going to have to adapt at some point.”

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