For employees the week has been an emotional roller coaster since the Dynegy deal fell apart. The day of the broken deal, executives told the company that bankruptcy proceedings were possible and large layoffs were inevitable.
Several kegs of beer were opened throughout the building on Friday, including on the trading floor where business was slow. A vein of dark humor was apparent as some employees taped up signs on the inside of windows warning: "Stop! This is not an exit!"
Another group of employees found themselves waiting an unusually long time for one of six elevators to arrive. "They must have already laid off two of the six," one employee joked.
According to internal company memos, Enron stopped matching employee savings plan contributions with Enron stock, instead matching contributions for the Nov. 30 pay cycle with cash.
In the past, that practice left many employee retirement plans heavily invested in Enron stock, which has seen its value drop from US$84 per share earlier this year to a low of US$0.26 per share on Friday.
After Friday, Enron will no longer make matching contributions to the plans, the memo continued.
Other internal memos announced that all corporate American Express Cards would be frozen effective Dec. 7, with use of the cards severely restricted before then, and that Federal Express suspended all outbound package service from Enron.
"All outbound packages should be shipped via UPS," the memo said.
The impact of a faltering Enron on other businesses around the world continued to come into sharper view Friday as Standard & Poor's said a default by Enron on its debt may cost the credit derivatives market -- where traders buy and sell contracts based on the changing value of companies' credit -- a total of US$6.3 billion.
US public pension funds have suffered more than US$250 million in losses because of stakes in Enron, but in many cases, the losses represent a small percentage of the funds' assets.
Even President George W. Bush expressed concern about Enron's plight through a spokesperson. "He is very concerned about the impact on this great Texas company having such serious trouble and the impact on Houston and on Texas and on its employees, primarily," said Karen Hughes, counselor to the president. She said she talked briefly to Bush about the situation Friday morning.
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