The empty chair may belong to the person most affected by the decision.

Decisions get made in rooms the affected person cannot always enter. Sometimes it is a patient, sometimes a tenant, sometimes a child, sometimes whoever the new rota will keep from their family. The discussion goes smoothly precisely because the hardest information is absent, and everyone leaves feeling reasonable. An absence is easy to overlook, since nothing in the room signals what is missing.

Before the next decision you are part of, name who is not there and what they would say. Where you can, ask them beforehand, even briefly, and bring the answer with you.