A former IBM executive was persuaded by a subordinate to fly on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, only to have him fired weeks after the attacks.
Bill Elmore, who often tells this story on social media around the anniversary of the tragedy, said he has never regretted his decision to fire the unidentified employee because “IBM is not a charity.” No, he told the Thursday Post.
Elmore was booked on United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco on September 11, 2001, but an employee urged him to take another flight to the Bay Area and changed his itinerary the night before. changed.
The employee had no idea that Elmore had been flown to the West Coast to be fired from the team for poor performance, but he was eventually fired about a month after the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Air travel has reportedly returned to normal.
“IBM is not a charity. We are based on performance and results,” Elmore said.
“The fact is that although she was promoted to the position, she did not perform at the level required to maintain it,” he added.
“She was not fulfilling her contractual obligations and had issues with customer satisfaction. She was given very specific requests on how to improve and she was unable to do so.” .”
Despite life-saving advice to avoid boarding United Airlines Flight 93, her ruthless boss fired her from the team. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought with four Al Qaeda terrorists who had hijacked the plane with the intention of crashing it.federal building in washington dc
But before the plane crashed, when he arrived at the airport and saw people boarding Flight 93, he became even more irritated with himself for listening to her story.
“This meant I had to give up my first class seat and transfer to a flight departing 20 minutes later (from the same gate) with a stopover in Denver. I hated it, but… I’m glad I did it.” Elmore shared in a post by Xformerly known as Twitter.
“When I arrived at the airport, I saw people boarding Flight 93 and was angry that I hadn’t left earlier with a first class seat on a direct flight. I was only concerned about myself.”
Elmore told the Post that she knew sharing her actions would enrage social media users, but she decided to tell her story again because “my personal behavior changed after that day.” He said he felt the need to share it.
“I’m no longer a marketing brand person trying to make everything look good. I want to be honest,” he says with a laugh, adding that after sharing this detail, his daughter asked him, “Why on earth did I fire her?” Did you say that?” he said with a laugh.
X commenters were still quick to criticize Elmore for firing staff. call him a liar and I told him he should be ashamed. own. “
Elmore defended the decision to fire the team for its weaknesses, but said the team was transferred to another division of IBM.
“She used the words ‘Hey, I saved your life’ in their final discussion,” he said.
“Retirement was the hardest thing for me,” said Elmore, who rose from delivery manager to project executive during his 14-year tenure at IBM.
He added that he and his former staff had “no animosity toward each other” and that she had since become a vice president at another company.
“I was 20 years younger than her at the time, so she’s in her mid-to-late 70s now. My guess is that at this point she’s retired and happily living out her retirement. ,” Elmore told the Post.
But “my post wasn’t about her being fired, it was about remembering 9/11.”
On that day in 2001, Elmore said, “It was all about this short-sighted idea of getting to California in the most comfortable way possible. That was my mindset at the time: splurging on everything.” He talked about how frustrated he was that he gave up his first class seat on Flight 93 to sit in economy on a flight to San Jose just to get to a meeting early.
“Part of my post was that my focus was off and my focus changed,” he added. “I would take the donkey to California right now if it would save my life.”
Elmore continued, “When I travel to a foreign country, I try to pay attention to the people around me and take two days at the beginning and two days at the end to immerse myself in the culture.”
After 9/11, Elmore was inspired to become more involved in his local church, and found himself spending his vacations on a mission to Bosnia, “delivering medical supplies, food, and clothing to those affected by the Serbian war.” We donated $2,000 per trip.”
He told the Post that he has taken up private consulting work through the company he founded in 2019, Solomons Global Executive Solutions, and is “now enjoying some kind of early retirement.” He is also spending time with his family in New England.
