“Okay, I'm going to get pretty direct here, if that's alright.” Jeff was trying hard to be polite.

Bobby and Clare looked at each other with a little concern on their faces, and then they nodded.

“You guys, and Bob, really dropped the ball on the teamwork project.”

They didn't say anything, so Jeff continued, focusing on Bobby. “You said it wasn't just posters and T-shirts, but what else was it?” Before they could answer, he went on. “Because you don't seem to know what you mean when you talk about team players. And so you can't possibly know who needs to change, who should stay, and who should go.”

“We didn't say—” Clare wanted to explain, but Jeff wouldn't let her.

“Oh wait. I forgot.” Jeff was being sarcastic, but not rude. “You do have one clear definition. A person can't be a jackass.”

They laughed, but in a guilty sort of way.

After a moment, Bobby said something surprising.

“Actually, that's probably about right. Call them jerks or SOBs. Whatever the case, that's how I think about it.”

Jeff smiled. “Let's stick with jackasses for right now. So, how do you know if a person is a jackass? And how do you avoid hiring them?”

Clare answered first. “I guess you know one after you've worked with one for a while.”

Jeff shook his head. “Yeah, but by then it's too late. And you know what happens when you keep a jackass longer than you should?”

They didn't respond, so he answered the question for them. “The non-jackasses start to leave.”

He might as well have punched Bobby in the stomach, because the look on his face was a pained one.

Looking at Clare, Bobby declared, “That's what happened with Carl and Pedro.”

Clare explained it to Jeff. “They're the two foremen we lost. I don't know about Carl, but Pedro definitely wasn't a jackass. Nancy and some of the others on her team, I'm not too sure about.”

“You guys see the problem, right?”

They nodded, and Clare made a sarcastic suggestion. “Maybe our new slogan should be ‘no jackasses allowed.’ That would make a great poster.”

Bobby picked up his pen and started to write. “I'll get right on that. Is jackass one word or two?”

Ignoring her colleague's humor, Clare seemed to have a revelation. “You know, we always just relied on Bob for knowing who fit and who didn't. He had a way with sizing people up. But even he couldn't get everyone right. And he couldn't interview and decide on every candidate at every level. I guess it just broke down.”

Jeff seemed suddenly energized. “Well, I think it's time we figured this out. We have to stop hiring people who aren't team players. And we have to find out how many non–team players are still working here, and then get them to change or move them out.”

He paused and looked at his notes. “Because if we can't do that, I don't see how we're going to build a hotel and new wing on a hospital in the next eighteen months.” He paused, and took a breath. “And as much as I hate to say it, if we can't do that, then I really don't know how we're going to keep VB in business.”