Today's workplace is not one my father would recognize.
We got email today from our global security director. Briefly, it said that, yes, our site in Mumbai had reopened; no, no one from our company was injured in last week's terrorist attacks; yes, one employee did need to be “evacuated” from the Taj Hotel. We were also advised not to plan trips to India unless absolutely necessary and that we had engaged the services of International SOS Assistance (ISOS) to help “mitigate” the risks of international travel: “If you travel on business, you are encouraged to sign-up with ISOS to receive timely security updates during your travel.”
WTF? What a long, strange trip it's been (props to the Grateful Dead).
Quite apart from the fact that my father's workplace did not have email and other gee-whiz technologies, I cannot imagine that he or any of his peers could conceive ever receiving a corporate communique of that nature. Indeed, I could scarcely comprehend it myself before September 11, 2001 cast its long, baleful shadow over everything. The really sad, pathetic part of this story is that I read that email with nary a hint of surprise or shock.
Terrorism is or has become just another business risk, something to be managed and mitigated. That is, it is business as usual.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 20:51 2008-12-01 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)