Bye-bye Kenny Boy

Back in the late summer/early autumn of 2001, I became but one among thousands of former Enron employees. We may never know just how many of the executives were guilty of intentionally duping so many fellow human beings... obliterating the life savings of so many good people, trashing the energy market in California and elsewhere, and so many other greedy acts -- all to improve their own personal bottom line. I learned after the fact that some folks thought I'd joined Enron with the expectation of getting rich. The truth is that I joined Enron because I thought I'd get to work with the integration of SAP and Lotus Notes (I never did work with SAP), and the net effect on my paycheck when I joined the company was that I could not afford to participate in the 401(k). It's a bit funny that there were those who thought I was making a move out of greed, when the reality was a net decrease in my take-home when I started my new position ...and it is ironic that not being able to particpate in the 401(k) may have saved me from making the mistake that so many had made of sinking all of their retirement into Enron stock. So often what seems like a negative, ends up being a blessing. I was among the lucky ones. I worked with very talented and dedicated individuals, learned a heck of a lot, and was fortunate enough to not lose my retirement savings when I was laid off (we'd rolled my earlier 401(k) funds into a separate IRA fund).

But many folks did lose everything when the company collapsed. And definitely there was evil done by some of the execs. So this evening I put on one of my Enron shirts, and hoisted a brew (with fellow Drinking Liberally colleagues Ben W and Mike R) to Kenny Boy (Ken Lay) and the rest of the Enron royalty. It is not to me to judge who was guilty of what, nor what punishment may be appropriate for the guilty. But here's to the hope that karma is real, that good results in a multiplication of that good, and that evil results in lessons learned and the effecting of real and positive change, be it now or in a future existence. Cheers.

Comments

[Addison]

It's funny, when I was working in Houston and going to school, I was driving at night for a courier service and one of my dedicated runs was every morning do a drop for a customer at Enron. Marbled walls in the lobby, at 5 am there were (I shit you not) 17 security guards on duty. It's 5 AM...THERE'S NOBODY THERE!!!! Anywho, it didn't surprise me, the company's office always seemed more like it was showing off than a place of business. So it goes. Oh, and I remember the guy I used to deliver to was a slimeball who looked like a used car salesman. He bragged to me one time about after he had gotten divorced he decided to start collecting porn since his wife would never let him have it and that at that point he had two rooms in his house full of it.

[Barry in Portland]

Ah, Enron - seems like so long ago. There were, indeed, many good times, and great excitement over what we thought we were on the verge of doing (i.e. making Internet history).

I still get my monthly statement from UBS for my remaining stock holdings: $1.62, down from over a million at the peak.

As Joe said, we worked with some amazing people (including some amazing assholes), but the experience made me a better programmer, and I would not have found the rewarding work I do now, had I become a lazy, self-indulgent, conservative, dot-com millionaire.

You just never know.

[wayne]

Ken Lay's legacy lives on: via Greg Palast: http://www.gregpalast.com/ken-lays-alive