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Antiwork

My Boss on 9/11

The company dinner post reminds me of one that happened to me. This was just over 20 years ago. On 9/11/2001 as a matter of fact. Fortune 50 Company back then. My group of about 20 people (white collar, cube-farm office) was on a field day out of the office for a “team-building day”. Or boss gave us the address to gather at the business of friend of his to “volunteer” to do exterior painting for him. At the beginning of the day he tossed out t-shirts to all of us with his friend’s business name on them, because “we didn’t want to get paint on or own clothes, did we?” 9/11 happened that morning. Our boss was in and out of his buddy's office watching the news, and told us vaguely that something was happening in New York with plane crashes, but he had us keep painting until close…


The company dinner post reminds me of one that happened to me. This was just over 20 years ago. On 9/11/2001 as a matter of fact. Fortune 50 Company back then. My group of about 20 people (white collar, cube-farm office) was on a field day out of the office for a “team-building day”. Or boss gave us the address to gather at the business of friend of his to “volunteer” to do exterior painting for him. At the beginning of the day he tossed out t-shirts to all of us with his friend’s business name on them, because “we didn’t want to get paint on or own clothes, did we?”

9/11 happened that morning. Our boss was in and out of his buddy's office watching the news, and told us vaguely that something was happening in New York with plane crashes, but he had us keep painting until close of business. Everyone back at the normal office was sent home by lunchtime; the obvious call, and was probably company-wide (country-wide tbh). Being outside, we didn’t really have a grasp of what was happening until we were let go and got home.

The next day that we all went back to work (I don’t remember if it was the next day, or if we all skipped a day or two, or whatever)… but still the next day back in the office our boss went around to each of us and let us know that the t-shirt would be $20.

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