« My Top 10 Wishes for Working Parents | Main | Take a Thinking Break, for Your Work’s Sake »
September 11, 2007
Workplace Memories of 9/11
Six years ago this morning, I was driving to work, listening to my favorite morning show on the radio, when the traffic reporter broke in. “A plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York,” she said, her voice trying not to shake. “There are some really scary pictures here.” The DJ told her to keep us all updated, and I pulled into the parking lot, not realizing one of the most memorable days of my life was about to start.
When I got to my desk, my cube neighbor, who had a radio, told me a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. It was then I realized the first hit was no accident. I called my now-husband to tell him the news, and he was concerned and confused. At that point, I had to go, since I had a meeting with a visiting German colleague.
My workmates and I were trying to stay business as usual to avoid upsetting our visitor, but that soon became impossible as a flurry of news reports continued to come in and everyone gathered around the TVs and radios we had on hand. We soon learned another plane had hit the Pentagon, and another had gone down in Pennsylvania. Work ground to a halt. We all burned up the phone lines making sure our families were OK. I emailed my college roommate, whose offices were in downtown Manhattan, to check on her. It turned out she was all right -- her office was across the street from Ground Zero, but she didn’t see anything except on the news.
Meanwhile, our German visitor received word all flights were grounded indefinitely, and since he was due to go home on September 12, he held an anguished conversation in rapid-fire German with his worried wife to let her know he would be delayed. His quick trip to the US wound up turning into more than a week in the States.
September 11, 2001, was one of the most bizarre, upsetting and difficult days of my life. As we tried to piece together what had happened, everyone felt under attack, vulnerable and scared as hell. I was also furious that someone would do this to us and murder so many innocent people. What helped that dark day, and the hard days that came after, was banding together with my colleagues, sharing information and supporting each other when we could. As horrible as that time was, it made us forget differences of workplace hierarchy and social status and really help one another out. For that, I am eternally grateful. And six September 11ths later, on a similar late-summer Tuesday, I still am.
What are your memories of September 11? How did you and your workplace cope? Post your comments below.
For more information, check out our Work/Life Balance section.
Share this post: Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Posted by Christine on September 11, 2007 at 10:03 AM in The Daily Grind | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/8850/21509499
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Workplace Memories of 9/11:
Comments
On September 11,2001 it was the most shocking and bizarre thing that had happened to use in the United States I couldn't believe what just happened all of those people had died and I fell so sorry for those familys that have to live and repeat what happened the day that the planes had crash in to the towers and the pentagon all the people we lost and the hope that we had for the president had fall. I do believe that Bush and the people that he work for had knew that the planes was going to hit everything they are just covering it up and the people in the United States and all over the world have voted for this horrible person that some believe that he is the best but my opinion is that he is trash and I do wish that he hurry up and get out the white house he is killing our people and he don't even care this is the kind of person that people want to run our country a killer president he should had been inpeached but they inpeach Clinton the best president ever over an affair but not Bush the killer president that don't know how to hold a speech and can't give us a real reason why we is really at war it's all his felt that all of this people had died on this day.
Posted by: Victoria Delbridge | Sep 11, 2007 10:29:36 AM
The main thing I remember is staying huddled in the lobby area where the big screen TVs were located, everyone had gathered there. No one said much, and I can still clearly see the looks on people's faces -- sadness, worry, disbelief, tears. I remember noting how I was seeing aspects of co-workers that I would never normally see. No one at that time knew what was happening, and none of us could answer each other's questions, and there were many haunting questions on everyone's minds. One by one, people got up to leave, to see if they could get home. You wanted to be home, but I must say it was definitely comforting to be there with all those co-workers during those first few hours.
Posted by: Jeffrey Yamaguchi | Sep 11, 2007 10:49:09 AM
I worked for a corporation that was actually rumored to be on a list of targeted companies with our close and strong ties to the stock exchange. My boss came out white faced and told us of the first plane hitting and as we all went to go onto the internet we got there in time to watch the second one. For weeks my foreign co workers emailed their condolences to me and at each one I just cried all over again. We got out of work earlyt hat day and all I did that day and for weeks after was watch MSNBC for all the coverage and get angry all over again. I dont like the war for wars sake but we have kept this going for too long to jsut back off now - Bin Laden needs to die - and I hope it comes soon
Posted by: Sue | Sep 11, 2007 4:12:16 PM
I worked about 8 blocks south of the trade center. That day I was going across the street to get my coffee and heard sirens, sirens, sirens. More sirens then usual but hey, this is New York. When I got back to my office I heard that a plane hit the trade center. I remember feeling sorry for traffic control at the time (how naive). I called my mom who was crying, she told me that a second plane hit the trade center and she was upset because of all the people on them who died. It felt unreal. I started calling my husband who was several blocks north to try and reach him. Since he is very curious I was concerned that he would go over there.
I kept trying to reach him and wondering what to do. It was so unreal.
I left my office right after the first building fell and remember the dust. You couldn’t see a foot in front of your face. The trains weren’t running so I had to walk home. I was happy I wore flats that day. I headed toward water street to get out of the dust cloud and headed to the Brooklyn Bridge to go home.
On the Brooklyn Bridge everyone was covered with a layer of dust. The rumors were flying about other bombings including local court houses where the 1993 master bombers were convicted. I turned around at one point because I couldn’t believe that only 1 tower was standing. At that point the second tower started to fall.
Posted by: Elizabeth | Sep 12, 2007 7:49:24 AM
I was working for a worker's compensation mediation company and we could keep radios on our desks. Most of our workforce had started at 7am CDT because we dealt with alot of East Coast insurance agencies. We had about 30 customer service reps on the phone and several were speaking with New York offices to get approval for medications for worker's comp patients. Myself and two of my co-workers were on the phone with offices in the World Trade Center when the planes hit. The offices we were dealing with had heard the fire alarms and told us to call back in about an hour because it was probalby another false fire alarm - they had all said the same thing and we very unconcerned. Then as soon as we hung up the radio announced the first plane hitting. Since we only knew the adjusters by their first names - we never knew if they made it out ok or not. The companies shifted locations after a few days - alot of them out of Conneticut - so we never really knew what happened. It was very difficult for several months when we pulled up a claim and saw it was a New York Office - to know that we might have been the last person to speak with these adjusters just made us so sad. It was a very difficult situation for our clients that needed their medications - we just couldn't get approvals for them for weeks, so we had to make judgement calls and go ahead and approved limited quantities up to a certain amount to help our clients. the company lost some money in the process - but the sad reality is that whenever their is something so horrible that happens - everything has to keep going and we can never let terror of any kind keep life from moving on. If we do that - then they have won!
Posted by: Mary R. Chase | Sep 12, 2007 8:37:55 AM
I was technically not working at that time, but that day, as it did for so many, profoundly affected me. I am a New Yorker, and this is how that day began for me and how it changed the course of my life over the next year. It's a bit too long to post here, so just go to the link below, and please leave any comments you have there. Thank you.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/522583/out_of_a_clear_blue_sky.html?cat=43
Posted by: Christopher | Jun 10, 2008 10:09:52 AM
