Working Through the Tragedy

Minutes before the meeting, the resort’s director of reservations came in to Albeit’s office and told him to turn on his television. When he did, he saw World Trade Center One had a hole in its side and smoke was pouring out of the landmark. As he was watched news anchors speculate about a bomb, he saw a second plane disappear behind the first building and explode into the other tower.

With questions and shock about what was unfolding on TV, Albeit attempted to return to his work. A group of architects arrived for the meeting. “They walked in the office, I couldn’t move. They didn’t know what had happened. So now they’re getting the shock. We watched a good 15 minutes,” Albeit says. “We sat down, thinking were going to conduct a meeting, but we talked about what we saw on television ... I walked back into my office to get something for the meeting, saw the Pentagon hit, and that was the end of the meeting. We could not conduct business as unusual.”

But unlike many businesses that closed early on Sept. 11, sending employees home to watch the latest developments and to sort through the tragedy, Albeit found his day—and the impact on his business—was just beginning. By 2 p.m., the Florida Bankers Association postponed its meeting—leaving 300 rooms vacant for the week. (The meeting was pushed back to the first week in October, with a fewer number of participants.)

With airport closings across the nation and fear among Americans about the safety of air travel, every meeting for the remainder of September was canceled, Albeit says. “It hit home right away,” he says. “The surreal happening on TV was bought back to reality for us with a significant drop in business.”

While the tourism industry has received most of the attention, particularly statewide, in the aftermath of the September attacks, the tragedy had impacted every business owner, manager and employee in Southwest Florida. Some businesses, like hotels, saw dramatic decreases. Other businesses, from stores selling flags to security firms, became much busier. And companies not directly affected by the attacks faced the question of how to balance the loss of productive time with allowing employees to grieve, process the shock, and in the weeks after the attack, overcome fear about other attacks and bio-terrorism.

At the Naples law office of Roetzel & Andress, the employees were glued to the TV throughout the morning of Sept. 11, says city manager Mark Price. At noon, he closed the office. When the office reopened the next morning, “it was not business as usual here,” Price says. “Most people were certainly calm and recognized that there were certain tasks and deadlines and responsibilities that needed to be met. Those higher priority items were in fact dealt with.”

For the rest of the week, Price and most of the employees worked at half-speed. They slowly moved back into work, taking care of high-priority items and recognizing that billable hours would be much fewer for September. “Because of the crisis that all of America was facing at the time, our perspective was to allow the employees to remain as in touch with the daily goings on as possible. It would have felt really odd and improper to shut off that communication too early,” he says, adding that even at the expense of productivity, there was a higher principle.

At the Registry, Albeit switched from making the emotional calls to friends in New York to confirm they were safe to realizing the repercussion at home. “My refocus was right here at home. The problem was: We were going to be significantly impacted from a business standpoint, which would now affect employees,” he says.

Each hourly employee and most managers that had vacation or personal days were encouraged to use them in September. Albeit says he was “trying to reassure them that, at this point, yes, September was going to be very difficult. The short term was heavily impacted, but we felt optimistic about October, November and December.”

At first, Jesse P. Morgan, owner of Diamond Investigations and Security in Cape Coral, wasn’t impacted by the attacks. But in the days after the attacks, he began receiving more and more requests for security guards—from owners of auto dealerships to the city of Cape Coral. No additional marketing or advertising, just word of mouth. “Normally they don’t use security and they’re wanting more security, just to feel a little bit more safer,” he says.

So far, Morgan hasn’t hired additional guards or provided extra training, but he plans to invest in additional instruction that addresses terrorism in the future, particularly if he wins bigger contracts.

When the business is hospitality, however, how can employees smile and be friendly when they’re dealing with confusion and grief? That balance was something that Albeit at the Registry had to meet in the days after Sept. 11, particularly in comforting guests stranded at the resort when their travel plans were postponed. Weeks later, Albeit received a letter from a couple in London who were unable to fly home and stayed an additional four days at the resort. The couple thanked the staff for being helpful, friendly and sympathetic during such a terrible time in America.

“That was my message to the staff,” Albeit says. “In some way...we need to show some emotion and concern and care. But at the same time, we need to be a little reassuring. It’s a tough role to play because we were so insecure at the hotel.”