“I never take a sick day, and I don’t expect my staff to take any, either,” said Mariel without looking up. “Some days I feel better than others, but I come to work anyway, short of hospitalization. I expect the same from others.”

Pia conjured up a number of pithy retorts but thought better of saying any. She hoped she’d have an opportunity to tell Mariel what she thought of her at some juncture in the future.

For the next two-plus hours, Pia kept her head down and worked hard. Mariel had commandeered some more staff to help in the new space she’d gotten previously on the floor below. Pia got them up to speed, and they began to set up more biocompatibility experiments. The more experiments that could be run, the better the conclusions would be statistically.

What now began to bother Pia was that Mariel would not give up her tendency to micromanage, meaning everything had to be run by her, even the most mundane details. For Pia, part of the excitement of doing research was challenging herself first to get to a solution, and second to get corroborating data. She felt constrained by Mariel’s overbearing supervision of everything she did and every step she took. When she had a break, she again sought out Mariel, who was still engrossed in the same ledger book, no doubt compulsively going over details.

“Listen, Mariel, I know the work is going well, and you’ve got staff running tests that I don’t even know about in other Nano buildings. Are any of these other tests related to what I am doing, and if they are, wouldn’t it make sense to have some of the techs report directly to me? That way I can analyze what they are doing myself.”

“That’s my job, Pia. Your job is to be creative about the specific problems that we assign to you. What other people are doing is not your business.”

“Yes, okay, but who are they? Why can’t I at least talk to them? I’m slaving away here, and I have no idea what anyone else is doing. To me that is frustrating and seems like a recipe for redundancy.”

“Nano is a large, high-security company that is very compartmentalized because of security needs. There is a need-to-know policy with all our staff and all our research. You don’t need to know what other people are doing, nor do they need to know what you are up to. Ultimately it’s more efficient that way and certainly more secure. You’ll be informed if there is any redundancy. You concentrate on what you’re paid to do. If you knew Mr. Berman better, you would understand the way his mind works. He’s the father and supporter of Nano’s organization. I am his eyes and ears.”