ENRON AFTER THE APOCALYPSE: The tower emerges from the Houston skyline like a corpse's finger, frozen at the final moment. Its structure remains firm --the windows gleam in the morning sun-- but even from a distance there is a sense that a vitality has left the tower. The huge energy that possessed it once has been consumed, a voracious appetite that ended up feeding on itself; the tower's burnt-out husk and a few lonely souls are all that remains. And those souls? You don't wanna know:

Interviews with current employees and those who survived the initial layoffs only to leave later depict a workforce that is depleted and demoralized, as employees scavenge office supplies and duck superiors for fear of being the next to be terminated.

Further, because not all of Enron's many divisions are in bankruptcy, a two-tier caste system has emerged. Employees who work for bankrupt divisions are prohibited from receiving retention bonuses or severance pay beyond the $4,500 ordered by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. This has created a sink-or-swim workplace as employees jockey for transfers to non-bankrupt divisions and maneuver to eliminate competition from rival workers.

Oh, pink slip, where is thy sting?