Ten years ago, I was enjoying my IRS work in dealing with complex tax issues. I had great co-workers and a helpful manager. Those were the best time of my career — so much so that I refused to consider management positions on couple of occasions.
Since we lost everything related to that audit, the IRS was unable to place all of us on other cases immediately. We were given temporary work stations. Those couple of months sitting at my cubicle, practically nothing to do and thinking about my future resulted in the decision to go into management in April 2002.
Until Sept. 11, I seldom used to dream. Over the years, the frequency of the nightmares has decreased. I learned later that so many of my fellow commuters did not make it. Even with those occasional bad dreams, I consider myself as a lucky one.
Karakat is a manager in the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division in New York.