Bad Building Ju-ju All Around: Falling Crane Kills Microsoft Employee

Off and on all day Friday I had been trying to reach the project manager for a vendor who’s helping me rehaul our internal field site Before I get ahead of myself here – she’s fine. It just seemed wierd that no matter how I tried, I could not get a hold of her. Or anyone on the team. Around 4pm I received an auto-responder from their office.

A crane fell on their building. About twenty hours before.

Nov 18, 2006

The Seattle Times

Offices of at least three businesses in the Plaza 305 building in downtown Bellevue are closed indefinitely after Thursday’s construction-crane accident.

Workers shuttled in and out of a Pacific Continental Bank branch, removing confidential documents because of severe damage to the building. Clients were told they could do their banking online, over the phone or at a branch in downtown Seattle.

At Civica Office Commons, windows were shattered in the offices of developer Schnitzer Northwest and public-relations firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide when the crane slammed into the north tower of the complex. A Wells Fargo branch on the ground floor remained closed while workers removed debris.

I wonder now, how was it I was able to pick up a random news bite about a bomb going off at eBay in another state between the gossip and traffic on Jackie and Bender’s Morning Show – but I didn’t so much as hear a peep all day about a crane falling on three buildings less than ten miles from where I work?

But as much of a total ass I felt sitting at my desk that evening, reading about how completely clueless I’d been of a major disaster right down my street, in reality I only focused on that for about a half a second. Because the whole thing got a lot, lot worse.

Nov 17, 2006

KING / KING5.com Staff and Wire Reports
BELLEVUE, Wash. – The man who died in when a crane crashed into his apartment Thursday evening was 31-year-old Matthew Ammon, a patent attorney for Microsoft.

He had only worked there for five months, after moving from Kansas City. Ammon was originally from the Pittsburgh area, according to general counsel for Microsoft Brad Smith.

The 210-foot crane collapsed around 7:45 p.m. at the high-rise complex construction project on 108th Avenue NE near NE 4th Street, at 333 Bellevue Tower, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years.

It smashed into the west side of the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments, killing Ammon, who lived on the top floor. It also sliced through two other buildings, the Civica Office Commons and Plaza 305.

Part of downtown Bellevue remained shut down Friday as investigators searched for what caused the construction crane to come crashing down Thursday night.

I didn’t know Matthew. I doubt that given another three, five, ten years on campus, I would ever even meet him. But do I know he was out here just like the rest of us, trying to accomplish something. I know he was probably kicking back watching a football game at the time of the accident. I know he was just one year younger than me, and I know that he had no expectation at all of what crashed down on him that night.

#3 on My List of 'Bloggers I Want To Be Like When I Grow Up'

Thanks to Scobelizer & Wil Wheaton’s references to Gaping Void, I’ve been a semi-frequent visitor of Hugh MacLeod’s cartooning blog. I liked his work, it always made me chuckle. But as far as my must-read-blogs were concerned, he just wasn’t on my list. 

Until today. He automatically hit the ‘bloggers who make me shoot coffee out my nose’ qualifier, just behind Amalah and Erin Dailey, when I read this post from Gaping Void and “How to be Creative”.

SO. TRUE.

He’s funny as hell and the best thing is, what he’s about is so much more than snarky cartoons.

“I chose the monster image simply because I always thought there is something wonderfully demonic about wanting to change the world. It can be a force for the good, of course, if used wisely. It’s certainly a very loaded part of the human condition, but I suppose that’s what makes it compelling.”

Working somewhere that’s ‘changed the world’ is an addictive thing. You get used to it, expect it, demand it - then become confused and/or angry and/or pissy when you find yourself in a position where it ain’t gonna happen. Usually, that’s the point when you have to step back and realize, your Monster’s Taken Over. And he needs a good long spell in the Time Out Corner.

I identify with Hugh’s idealistic perspective and admire his commitment, abilty to apply his ideals, and strength of voice. I should be so lucky as to develop a sense of humor as sharp as his.

If putting someone else’s work on the back of my card didn’t defeat the whole purpose of promoting myself as, you know, a designer, this would totally be my business card.

Because being smart and professional means you couldn't POSSIBLY be feminine

Working at Microsoft continues to amaze me. But again, it’s not because of the big things, like software and stock grants and benefits so fat it’s a second job just figuring out how to max them all (so I hear). It’s because of the little things, like the conversations.

Walking to the breakroom for coffee, lunch or just to stare longingly at the snack machine, is a virtual trip around the world. People zapping their lunch in the microwave or grabbing a cup o’ Joe on their way to a meeting can easily be heard just shooting the breeze. In Chineese. Or Russian, German, C+, take your pick. I don’t understand a word of it, I just know it sounds beautiful. Intense. And completely beyond my frame of reference.

In fact, I continually find myself in meetings with developers, marketers and product managers who are so far beyond me that I feel like the stupidest person ON THE PLANET. Which, on a side note, I sometimes prove to be sadly and terribly true.

Last week I got lost in another building. LOST. Not "Hm. This is room 1204. I’m looking for room 1234, so I should turn around and go the other way" lost. No, this was "Room 3278?! The hell? I’m on the FIRST FLOOR! This is the THIRD TIME I’ve been down this damn hallway…how do people work here? It. ALL. LOOKS. THE SAME!! Maybe right…no? ok, left. Am I IN the fucking TWILIGHT ZONE?! WHERE THE FUCK IS THE FUCKING ELEVATOR GET ME OUT GET ME OUT GET ME OOOOOUUUUUT!" lost.

Thank CHRIST no one knew me.

At times like that, I have to remind myself: I AM smart. AND talented. Just not with any of the stuff THEY know. My inbox is stuffed with requests from every member of my department asking me to update an intranet, reformat documents, make banners, newsletters, a multitude of miscellaneous graphics, and oh, by the way, can you please explain what this search engine optimization gobbledy-gook is all about?

Alright. I feel like I’ve recovered from the getting LOST AT WORK story. Back to my point.

There is one conversation at Microsoft that comes up all the time. And it amazes me for a couple of reasons. One, I’ve heard it here more than anywhere else in my entire adult experience. Second, I haven’t had to think about it in a really, REALLY long time, because I’ve been lucky enough to work in places where it wasn’t so much an issue.

And that issue is: THERE ARE NO WOMEN HERE.

Now, of course, all my previous employers subjected me and my coworkers to the same sexual harassement-equal opportunity training breaks to Legalesia that most employees everywhere enjoy QUITE REGULARLY. And like most employees everywhere, we were all taunting the Gods of Legalesia about 5 seconds afterwards. Then the jokes die down, and those kinds of conversations don’t come up again until the next round of ‘training’.

But I’m talking about everyday conversation. Things people talk about while they’re waiting for another meeting to start, or when they’re in line at the lunch counter. The kind of conversations that reflect the things people really care about only because it affects them directly.

And before I worked for a techno-centric company like Microsoft, those conversations never revolved around the balance between men and women in positions throughout the organization – unless someone was conducting interviews. It wasn’t like there was a shortage of women.

Although, a previous manager of mine once made the observation that none of the women in higher management (director, vp, ceo, etc.) in the business world today would be classified as pretty. In fact, it’s as if the women in these positions and the people putting them there are trying to get as far from feminine as humanly possible.

This had not occurred to me. But the more I thought about it, and the more I paid attention to noticing it, the more it seemed true. As though there’s some unwritten agreement that only women who look ‘serious’ (i.e. homely) go very far in business or technology. No pretty clothes. No flashy haircuts. No lipstick.

Now there’s this raging controversy over an Austrailian calendar, "Screen Goddess IT Calendar 2006-2007"

Published to "smash the perception" that IT careers are *gasp* ‘nerdy’  (a trait listed as "one of the greatest barriers to entry to the industry"), the calendar, it’s creator and the website itself have been under attack because GOD FORBID, they dared to show women as…women.

Fantasies and all.

Technology is a creative industry. True, it’s an extremely technical one, but how else do you engage ANY group to such a field except through their imagination? And why is it necessary for women to completely emasculate themselves in order to be taken seriously? Or even BE serious ALL THE TIME? What’s this rule that you can’t do anything FOR FUN? ESPECIALLY when you have all these technological toys to PLAY WITH?

I wonder if there’d be as much fuss over a "Screen Gods" calendar with IT guys dressed up as Conan the Barbarian or Brad Pitt. I hear you laughing. Better keep it down – those guys know Important Shit about Things That Can Totally Ruin Your Day. So be nice. Anyway, it could happen. Granted, Superman, Batman and Indiana Jones would probably make an appearance, too, but still. To each their own.

I love this calendar. In my fantasy world, I’d have to be Trinity – but with a better costume.

I would RULE that.