News is circulating today (US time) that Russia has invaded Ukraine. In a show of force, the Ukrainians are fighting back but they are badly outnumbered. To take my mind off of the news, I was musing about the current "antiwork" movement of individuals that seek to avoid work and the rat-race. It is complicated, but it caused me to think back to a time when I was working for United Airlines in the late 1980s.
I was working in an organization that was geographically split between suburban Chicago and Denver, named EXOKT and DENKT. In the EXOKT branch, we were recruiting for a programmer. After the usual series of interviews, we found a candidate, made an offer, and he accepted.
He showed up on the Monday that was his start date. Unfortunately, he did not show up on Tuesday. Concerned that something may have happened, my boss (and his new boss) called the new employee's home to see that he was OK. The employee's wife answered the phone to say that Employee was "at work". My boss was quick witted enough to ask, "oh, can you give me his number at work?" The wife gave it, so our boss called the Employee "at work". The Employee answered the phone, "Employee, XYZ Corp.", where XYZ was not United Airlines. Our boss identified himself and said "you are fired."
Evidently the Employee had not resigned from his old job and was trying out both to see which one he liked. His choices were quickly truncated. This was about 1987 or so.
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