About That Fling(11)
“As you’ll see in just a few minutes, things have gotten very contentious between the nurses’ union and hospital administration,” explained Kendall Freemont—the real Kendall Freemont—as she pushed a pile of paperwork to Adam from across her desk Monday morning.
“I understand,” Adam said, glancing down at the contract. “Organizations don’t usually bring me in when everyone’s sitting around the conference table holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya.’”
“Right,” Kendall said. “I’m sure you see this sort of thing all the time. This is actually my first time dealing with contract negotiations that have taken such a contentious turn.”
“Are you new to Belmont Health System?”
Kendall nodded and folded her hands on the desk. “Not new to human resources, but I’ve only been with Belmont for two weeks. Before this, I worked in HR for a medical center over in Ashland. We had the occasional employee discipline issues and a layoff here and there, but nothing like this.”
Adam nodded and continued flipping through the forms, studying the legal language as carefully as possible for a first pass. “I hear you. union negotiations can be especially tricky. You’re very smart to bring in outside assistance. Sometimes professional mediation can really turn things around. Once people are armed with Compassionate Communication techniques and new skills for conflict resolution, I often find it can turn a bad situation into a workable one.”
“Yes, of course,” Kendall said, fidgeting with a gold pen on the corner of her desk. “The touchy-feely approach is something we haven’t tried yet. I look forward to seeing you work your magic.”
Adam laughed and flipped another page. “I wouldn’t call it magic, exactly. I’m just giving people the tools they need to communicate in a respectful, constructive fashion.”
“As opposed to shouting obscenities at each other and hurling paperclips across the conference table?”
“Right,” Adam frowned. “How’s the CEO’s eye, by the way?”
“Better. He’ll be joining us today, of course. Here’s an agenda for today’s meeting. The list at the bottom has the names and titles of everyone who’ll be part of today’s discussion.”
She slid the piece of paper across the table toward him, and Adam skimmed over it. Ten minutes for introductions, that was good. He’d try to push for twenty, maybe introduce a brief get-to-know-you exercise to help break the ice. He made a note in the margin beside an item about salary cap negotiations. Better to save that conversation for the next meeting, to wait until they’d established a better sense of safety and security.
His eyes dropped to the names of participants. Phil Gallow, the CFO. Adam hadn’t met the guy yet, but he’d heard good things. Brett Lombard from the Oregon Nurses Association—he’d spoken with him in a phone conference a couple weeks ago. Mia Dawson from the NICU—he didn’t know anything about her. Susan Schrader from—
“Mr. Thomas?”
Adam looked up from the paper and caught the worried look in Kendall’s eyes. “Yes?”
“You’ll be—um, well, discreet about all this, won’t you?”
“Labor negotiations are always confidential.”
“Yes. Yes, of course.” She fidgeted with her pen. “This organization has had problems in the past with the media.”
“Yes, I read about that. The previous CEO’s wife was running an escort service on the side?”
Kendall pressed her lips together and nodded once. “Yes. It was before my time at Belmont, and obviously that particular CEO is no longer with the organization.”
“But the media hasn’t forgotten?”
“Nor have the employees. Their trust in Belmont’s leadership team faltered after the incident. As I’m sure you’re aware, public perception is vital with a respected organization like Belmont.”
“I understand completely,” Adam said. “I appreciate your desire to keep things out of the newspaper and off the local airwaves. While I can’t control the actions of the bargaining team, I can assure you of my own discretion.”
“Good. That’s good.” Kendall took a deep breath. “I want to apologize again for my failure to make our meeting the other night. Family emergency.”
“Not a problem. I totally understand. I hope everything’s okay now.”
She gave a tight nod, then folded her hands together on the desk. “I—um—I understand you also do other kinds of mediation? Outside the corporate world?”