On November 18, 1999, on the campus of Texas A&M University, the Aggie bonfire collapsed, killing 12 students and injuring many more. The collapse of the bonfire was a hugely emotional event for students at Texas A&M, for faculty and staff, and for members of the surrounding community. Investigations regarding the decades-old tradition followed, and no on-campus bonfire has been burned since.

On September 11, 2001, planes piloted by terrorists were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Another plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field. Thousands were killed, and 9/11 will forever be a dividing day in history, marking the beginning of an era in which terms such as “war on terror” and “homeland security” became common parlance. The emotional toll of September 11 on our individual, national, and global psyches will last for untold years to come. 

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the gulf coast of the United States. Hours later, many levees were breached in New Orleans, leading to the flooding of over 80% of the city. For days, New Orleans residents sought refuge in shelters, in the ill-prepared Superdome, and in neighboring and distant states. Over 1,800 people died, and many more lost homes or were displaced for many months. Criticisms of local and national authorities for their handling of the storm were widespread. 

On April 16, 2007, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In shootings two hours apart, Seung-Hui Cho, a mentally ill English major at the school, shot 32 people before committing suicide. The campus community mourned the loss of both students and faculty, and the incident led to national discussions regarding issues ranging from gun control to campus security to the treatment of the mentally ill.

CASE ANALYSIS QUESTIONS 

1. In what ways do the “special cases” of organizational life discussed in this case bring processes of rationality and emotion into sharp relief? Is emotion more “present” in these cases? Are different kinds of emotion brought to the forefront? How does the everyday nature of most of our work lives blind us to processes of emotion? 

2. How are the specific processes of emotion discussed in this chapter—emotional labor, emotional work, and compassion, stress, and burnout—illustrated in these examples of the inexplicable? Are particular processes of emotion in the workplace especially apparent in the midst of the inexplicable, in the aftermath of the inexplicable, or in living in the new normal? 

3. How could organizations and employees in those organizations be better prepared to cope with the emotion of these inexplicable events? And could those lessons be translated into practices that lead to more healthy and happy organizational life during the more mundane days, as well?