The "9/11" Excuse.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So now it is United Airlines.
How long are businesses going to continue to use this for an excuse for years of bad management and crappy service.
Yes, there were businesses that were seriously hurt at that time, and even for a period afterwards.
But come on…I read where a drycleaner recently was claiming he had to close shop because of 9/11…and this is in Las Vegas. A bad economy, ok. A bad location, ok. But because of 9/11?

Is this the new catch-all phrase for an excuse to lay off people, close shop or declare bankruptcy or am I just getting too cynical?

2

It sickens me that our tax money was spent to bail out these bozos when they needed to take responsibility for their crappy assness.

Coorporate welfare sucks.

3

Actually, our tax money is NOT being used to bail-out United, that’s why the Business Bozos are having such conniption fits. United management thought they only had to lean on the unions, get wage reductions, and they’d be handed lots of moeny. No dice.

I always like to point out that, while United lost 2 jets and some personnel from 9/11, American Airlines lost 3 jets in 2001 (two on 9/11, and flight 587) along with the personnel on board, they’re still doing much better than United and have not needed to file for any sort of bankruptcy.

So… while 9/11 did hurt United, it is not the sole reason they’re going down the toilet now.

4

How are businesses doing that had offices in the Twin Towers?

Cantor Fitzgerald, Merril Lynch?

5

Since this isn’t in the Pit (yet?), I’ll keep it clean. About a month ago I changed employers. The place that I left is a fairly small public company that is doing horribly. They will likely be out of business or, if they’re lucky, purchased by March 2003. It disgusted me to see that they blamed a large part of their problems on 911 in the annual report. What a crock. They’d be doing just as poorly had 911 never happened. Their problems started with a string of bad business decisions starting in 1998 and continuing to today.

The 911 excuse is reprehensible and is used way, way too much in corporate America.

Haj

6

I’ll agree that there were probably problems with United before 9/11, but they were greatly negatively affected by those events for sure. It would be hard to say that the 9/11 hijackings and the economic conditions in the airline industry caused by them aren’t the main factors contributing for United’s current situation.

The airline industry’s economic situation is what has hurt United, not the physical loss of the airplanes hijacked and employees involved. It doesn’t really matter that another airline lost 3 planes in 2001 compared to United’s 2, or that other businesses lost offices and infrastructure, because the physical losses to United aren’t the big problem here.

There is now less demand for air travel, and although the supply is also down a bit it hasn’t dropped as much as demand. Costs are also up significantly, caused by factors as new regulations, security issues, delays and so on. Revenue and profits are down indursry wide. These economic factors have had a huge impact on United. I got this information here.

I’m not saying that there weren’t other factors contributing to what has happened to United. I’m just saying that 9/11 was the biggest factor. They may have been going downhill anyway, may have even been headed for bankruptcy, but the 9/11 events are the reason it happened when it did.

7

I nominate my employer as the worst violator of blaming poor performance on 9/11. Boeing has slashed over 35,000 jobs and they just anounced another 5000 are going in 2003. My shop has gone from 350 employees to 145 in the last 3 years and the powers to be claim we are over headcount and need to cut back more. They claim we are not efficient in our work habits. I have gone from working virtually no overtime to working about 60% of the weekends in 2002. Plus our new labor contract was nothing but takeaways. Boeing’s only competitor in the commercial airplane market has not laid off an employee in 7 years and plans on hiring more next year.

I had always thought I would work for Boeing till I retired but now I’m not so sure.

8

Actually most of the big ones had excellent Business Continuity Programs in effect. Morgan Stanley, for instance, was the largest tenant of the WTC. Six employees died and 3500 were displaced and officeless. Their business operations were horrendously affected for a time, but they were able to recover and are up and running.

A lot of it has to do with proactive data recovery plans (making sure all your eggs are NOT in one basket.) Businesses that were smart, had Business Continuity Plans already in effect. No one expected anything as catastrophic as 9/11 – the plans are more or less in place in the event of fire, earthquake etc. sort of “what if all our files got burned?..” They were sure they had data backed up in multiple locations in multiple formats.

Some of the smaller businesses in the WTC had to rely on the fact that many employees work at home and had bits and pieces of data on their PCs at home. Most firms had automated back-ups stored away from their main offices. (Example, I worked for a company that had data tapes made of all files weekly, the tapes were then stored in a vault across town. In the event of catastrophe, only a weeks worth of files would be lost.)

9

In this post 9/11 world, how can you ask that? The terrorists have already won. sob

10

My employer has been making excuses about 9/11 as well. I work for the City of New York :frowning:

Of course, I know the City has legitimate excuses, but that doesn’t help me at all. Before 9/11, I was lined up for a promotion and a raise, but after over a year of no promotion, I don’t see it ever happening. Of course, that hasn’t prevented me from being forced to perform the work that I would have been doing had I been given the promotion :mad:

In early 2001, our agency had 17 staff members. Before 9/11, we lost 6 staff members due to firings, transfers, and resignations. We would have replaced those staff members had 9/11 never occurred, but now we’re not only not going to be replacing them, but we’re also having our budget cut. Plus, the remaining staff have to perform the responsibilities of those 6 staff members who left :mad:

So, let’s see… I’m performing the job that I should have been promoted and received a raise for, plus I’m also performing my prior duties, plus I’m also responsible for work by a staff member who left last year, figuring out by myself how to perform those responsibilities as I had no prior training for them.

The kicker: I am living on a government employee’s salary, my first real job since school so I’m not making much. I have $400 a month in student loans to pay (and that’s after a one year’s deference and subsequent loan consolidation), and because my job requires that I live in the city, I am paying $940 a month for rent. That combination of salary and expenses equals a Banger in dire straits. Plus, the hope of climbing the ladder and easing my financial situation is effectively eliminated.

A well deserved and needed promotion and raise are vaguely promised by my boss but are only authorized by the administration, which is overlooking our agency because we’re “not important” :mad:

Never mind the fact that I work a few blocks away from the WTC, that I had a two-week “vacation” from work in September of 2001, that for months I breathed in the dust in the air from the collapsed buildings, that to this day my office is still dusty from the buildings’ collapse, and that like countless others my life hasn’t been the same since 9/11. I knew people who died in the buildings, living in the city I lived in fear of other attacks, and the building where I work had bomb threats, including one on 10/01, a month after the attacks.

As a result, I am counting the days (as of the passing of midnight it is now 8 days!) in which I am admitted to the state bar (pending the character and fitness interview on Monday, which shouldn’t be a problem). Once bar admission happens and I’m more marketable, out go the resumes, be it for private sector or a gov’t job on Long Island, where I have familiy.

To be honest, if I got the promotion and raise, I would take it and remain where I am, despite the fact that I know I would still have the additional responsibilities I have now and that the agency would remain in its now perpetual state of triage, as I do like much of the work, I find it worthwhile, and I like my co-workers and boss. But it’s pretty clear that there will be no such promotion and raise and that there is no relief in sight for our agency, so I have little choice but to look for employment elsewhere.

Part of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan in cutting city spending costs is anticipating attrition. Now I know what he means :mad:

I apologize if other posters deem this a rant and a hijack. The subject matter of the original post just hits close to home.

11

For my act of patriotism after the 9/11 attacks, I bought a share of common stock in American Airlines and another in United.

(I already invest through Morgan Stanley, which was another “innocent bystander” corporate loser in the attacks).