By the following spring, the Old Town Quarter market had become a regular monthly event.
I was promoted to Manager of the Planning Department and began leading my own team.
The first time I chaired a promotion review, a coworker asked me, "Ms. Parker, when someone close to us is competing against an ordinary employee, how do we avoid the appearance of favoritism?"
I said, "Write down the standards in advance and make the results public.
"Avoiding the appearance of favoritism doesn't mean refusing to recognize the abilities of someone close to you.
"It means giving no one a shortcut and taking away nothing anyone has earned."
After I spoke, I thought of Ethan.
I heard that he stayed at the company as a project manager for a much lower salary.
He began conducting every review accordi
