Lake:

Neil was just about to begin his end-of-the-month report. He stood in front of the large projector while other employees sat at the round table with me. It was a monthly routine I had forced myself and my workers to uphold.

Each of them had to list out the goals they had shared on the first working day of the month, relate it with their progress so far, and point out their losses and ways they planned to improve their standards and working techniques. It was how I knew who would be resuming the first working day of the month and who would not.

The meeting lasted for over...