Visiting Ma Bell

One winter, perhaps in 1979, Dad brought me into see his work at AT&T. He worked in a very posh office building next to the World Trade Center. When you entered the building, you immediately noticed the incredibly high first floor ceiling and the marble walls making this seem like a medieval castle. There were a number of elevators which quickly zapped you up into what seemed like a completely new building.

His office was equally as impressive. On the 32nd floor, when you entered the office there were two 4x6' windows overlooking the East river. He had a solid mahogany desk and enough room to comfortably sit 2-3 other people. He also had a golden paperweight that looked like the Sphinx. Years later I would find out that this was an item he 'expensed' to the company.

Now Dad was not a high rolling executive at AT&T. In fact, he brought me to see his boss' office which had a full lobby in front of it with a couch and enough room to practice one's golf short game. This was simply how the monopolistic companies treated their people. Today all of this has almost certainly been replaced with 4x6' cubical farms. The people I saw that day are also long gone from AT&T, replaced with employees that have no job security and certainly no pensions.

Dad introduced me to his secretary who showed me the Wang computer she used to transcribe memos my father orated. She seemed like a sweet lady from Newark, NJ. His office made a positive impression on me. Little did I know that this place seemed like a prison to Dad. We went home very early that day, and he said very little about what he actually did there. Much like most monopolies and state run agencies, there may have been comfort but little energy inside those walls.

Still, I registered this experience and decided that one day, I too would work for a company like AT&T. How little did I know that indeed I would, and that I'd have a similar love hate relationship with it.