Care to name the company so I can be sure I never buy anything from them?
Incidentally, the privately owned company I worked for used to hold a company meeting on Veterans Day and honor all the vets. They sold out to a venture capital firm out of Boston. Most of the vets got terminated and replaced by kids just out of college, They no longer honor the few who are left.
My take on the plant manager's reaction is that he is exceedingly conscientious when it comes to policy matters, believing the “send to all” function is reserved for business announcements only. He's probably the only one in the company who said anything. If I were him I would have worded things a little less strongly while agreeing with the import of Corporal's remarks. Oh well.
Our company was privately owned until October 2009. Bought out by a larger entity. Things are not the same, for sure. Go back two decades we had company wide Christmas parties on plant turf with [gasp!] beer and whiskey around.