black monday . . . .

When I got to work this morning, I went about my normal routine of powering up, sorting through emails, checking messages, etc. About nine, I went for a cup of coffee and came back to check cnn.com for the morning headlines. That is how our office found out. There was no internal communication until 10:30 or so. When I began to realize the enormity of the sale, I started writing an account of the day as it unfolded. Some of this may just be jibberish and may not make much sense, but there is still a lot that doesn't make sense of it all.

I'm sitting at my desk. It's 11:10 am on Monday September 29th. It feels like it should be four o'clock in the afternoon already. The past two hours have been nonstop static, since the news broke about C buying W banking. My division was specifically not mentioned in the sale, which all but guarantees another announcement will be made about the sale of this division, hopefully within the next couple of days. My clients are twitchy, my coworkers are freaking out, my inbox is full of concerned messages from friends and snarky ones from others, and isn't it interesting that Charlotte is completely, and totally silent. We've been sent a memo from corporate with talking points for clients and customers. The talking points are generic at best.

It is now 1pm. Just back from grabbing a sandwich at Quiznos. Lots of W guys getting lunch there as well. My work buddy G and I ran into one of the private banking guys. He is pretty high up. He said the stock is not totally worthless, we should eventually get $8-12 a share. Not great, but better than $1 a share. He looked shell-shocked. They all looked shell-shocked. According to him, there will be significant lay-offs. It's only a matter of when. I sat and looked at the dozen or so men still in line. It was like a scene from a movie - loosened ties, unbuttoned collars. Hair standing on end and bloodshot eyes. Instead of a picture from some far-off, distant financial district, it was a picture literally across the street from my office. These are intelligent businessmen. They are knowledgeable about investments. And they didn't see this coming. How does that happen?

We now have a conf call scheduled at 2 and another at 4:30. I'm not worried about myself. I know I will be fine, regardless of the outcome. But I have all these questions and no answers! Besides the obvious regarding the future of our division, or the future of this office - How will this affect my 401(k) and stock options? What does this mean for the future of my clients? Was W truly, really just an inch away from failure? If W could potentially fail, who/what is next? Why are we not being traded on the market right now? How long will it last and will the price lift? What about the thousands of employees/retirees who just saw their retirement demolished? WHERE is the accountability for our former/current CEOs? Please tell me that the former's payout was pure stock and not cash. Every member of the board should be held accountable to the courts. We need to change the way corporate America is governed. We need to prevent greed from outweighing what is right.

Now I'm sitting on hold, waiting for the 4:30 conference call to begin. The 2 o'clock call was a complete waste of time. Less than five minutes of terse reiteration of the history of "why we are in the financial situation we are in". No new information and no Q&A. Maybe this one will give us a little more.

The late afternoon call was more of the same, but there was an open Q&A. Which confirmed that a sale is being negotiated but no suitors were specifically named. Also confirmed that an announcement will be made "as soon as possible". Confirmed that stock wasn't traded in order to give analysts time to digest the news of the sale (which was just as well, considering the stock closed at $1.84). We were told to make sure to take care of each other and "deal with the stress" and to continue servicing our clients and focusing on customer service. Additional talking points will be circulated tomorrow and an open letter to our clients is being drafted. No specifics on benefits or employee owned stock information. Many questions were punted by the HR rep on the call.

A lot of people lost a lot of money today. And a lot of my coworkers had the rug pulled out from under them. The greed of some is becoming the burden of all. Our economy is going to get worse before it gets better. The bailout is confusing at best. If the election doesn't tear our country apart, the ever depressive economy will for sure. As draining as the day was, I will not be shaken! God is in control.