#70: When Ball Needed a Bouncer

"Rust" Never Sleeps, But It Does Exaggerate

Every Ball Corporation job description included a final requirement that was a running in-joke among employees: “Other duties as assigned.”

It was often referenced when an employee found his or herself asked to do something at work so unexpected that they had no choice but to laugh as they did it. “Other duties as assigned,” they would say and shrug, while everyone would chuckle.

At Ball, that happened often. Part of The Ball Way was doing what was needed, regardless of job description or title.

Over the years, under “other duties as assigned” I loaded countless cars with cases of Ball’s new still water in cans, helped program hundreds of iPads before a company leadership meeting, even moved furniture before dozens of town halls.

And one time, at can school, I played bouncer, kicking a journalist out of Ball’s corporate headquarters. It earned me the role of a lifetime, as the heavy in a book about, of all things, rust.

Let me explain.