“You should have had help.”

“Yes,” she said.

“I should have.

But I don’t need you to make speeches about what should have happened.

I need to know what happens when a parent-teacher meeting lands on the same day as a board meeting.”

I thought about my calendar, where every appointment had always been movable except those labeled business critical.

I asked my assistant to remove the words business critical from the screen.

They meant nothing now unless I made room for other priorities.