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Antiwork

911 Work Story

I worked in lower Manhattan on 9/11/01. I saw the Twin Towers crash and burn. Due to the location of my office (small publishing house) I was unable to go to work the following week. There were circles of police barricades marking zones of accessibility. My office was in an inner zone, no access. When I finally got back to work I found out I'd been docked pay for the days I'd missed. I was, according to my boss, still required to come to work, ostensibly avoiding those same police barricades and potential arrest after a national tragedy. Over the years I've decided that the delineation between 'worker' and 'manager' creates a schism in the brain of the manager who, in addition to a different workload, has a corporate title of approval to honor, justify and defend. The ability to punish workers, nevermind the ability to fire workers who have…


I worked in lower Manhattan on 9/11/01. I saw the Twin Towers crash and burn. Due to the location of my office (small publishing house) I was unable to go to work the following week. There were circles of police barricades marking zones of accessibility. My office was in an inner zone, no access.

When I finally got back to work I found out I'd been docked pay for the days I'd missed. I was, according to my boss, still required to come to work, ostensibly avoiding those same police barricades and potential arrest after a national tragedy.

Over the years I've decided that the delineation between 'worker' and 'manager' creates a schism in the brain of the manager who, in addition to a different workload, has a corporate title of approval to honor, justify and defend.

The ability to punish workers, nevermind the ability to fire workers who have given themselves over to a given job or corporation, is really what sets management and workers apart. I'd argue that it's not (entirely) the money, but the control over other people's lives and their ability to safely plan their lives based on any sort of a reasonable income and job protection that's at the heart of our work unhappiness.

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