Katherine was the highest-­ranking person at the table. She had a master’s degree in psychology from an even more prestigious university than the one Ryan had attended as an undergrad. A retail trade magazine had recently profiled her, calling her a rising star and bright new talent. She’d made her reputation at Town Square by designing policies that were worker-friendly but cost-­neutral, and she spent a great deal of time traveling to stores around the country, talking to managers about the importance of praise in worker retention—­how much it means to employees to be complimented, how it’s often as valuable, if not more valuable, than raises when it comes to keeping workers happy. She called her approach the “well-­crafted carrot.” The idea was not to puff employees up so much that they up and quit, but to “make store-­level workers feel that Town Square is a place where they are seen and valued.” She had also formalized the policy of throwing storewide pizza parties at stores where union organizers were afoot and personally approved the language used in the flyers that were distributed at these parties, in which corporate’s case against unionization was laid out in friendly, upbeat terms, with only the subtlest insinuation that any union agitation would force corporate to curtail some of the generous benefits it currently gave to employees voluntarily. She was active, too, in arguing for the company to be a leader in terms of issues around inclusivity and equal treatment. “Especially for our team members who are people of color or LGBTQ+, or for women who’ve dealt with sexual harassment,” she explained to store managers, “working for a company that operates according to progressive values is its own kind of nonmaterial employee benefit.” Then she’d smile. “Of course, these policies also reflect what we believe is right.”