So I was sitting in a conference room with colleagues today waiting for a meeting to begin, when the message (highlighted in red below) popped into my In-box. (The Mothership internally uses Lotus Domino-based Mail Servers and most employees still use Notes Mail Clients – we all have our crosses to bear in this world.) Now one gets so many emails during the course of a day, that filtering is applied immediately to decide if you even have to open it up, whether it needs immediate attention, or can be moved to the back-burner and processed later. We get a bunch of emails from the Mgrinfo alias – these are non-project-related and provide updates on various IBM HR and site issues. Generally, I’ll not even open those up, just register the subject in my memory and hope the recall works OK later when or if I need that info.
But this one from Mgrinfo had a most intriguing Subject of "Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Machines”. Hmmm – imagine that? Just had to open that bad boy up immediately. (For both screenshots, you can see an enlarged image by clicking on the image.)
Sure enough. Big Blue is going to install 10 Defibrillators across the RTP site including one in our building. So of course we all had a good chuckle about that. While software engineering as an occupation isn’t a walk in the park, I guess I didn’t understand if there was anything else behind this move by the company. Has there been a rash of heart attacks on site? Don’t remember seeing SWENG on any of those “Top 10 Most Stressful Occupations” lists. (FYI - Here is one of those lists – here is another. There is the normal stress and pressures of meeting your internal deadlines on deliverables with adequate quality and doing your job well enough to stay employed. Working with pissed off customers and executives can get nerve-wracking, but, for the software we write, generally nobody dies if (when) you make a mistake. I am sure that the company’s heart is in the right spot here and this is a Good Thing, but it does give you pause.
I am intrigued by the use of the three letter acronym AED and hadn’t come across that before. With no disrespect intended whatsoever to our fine men and women serving to protect our freedom overseas, when I first read that note, I was thinking about the proximity to IED. It occurs to me that you don’t want be anywhere close to either of those things.
There could be a couple of implementation issues that surface as this plan gets rolled out.
Of course, while we all try to get along with each other at work, as in most workplaces, there are certainly managers and colleagues (and even customers) that you just can’t stand. Could make for some interesting moral dilemmas if you are called to administer to them, especially around performance evaluation time in January. Just kidding – I think.
Finally, it also strikes me that this is a feature of the workplace environment that managers might not want to highlight when interviewing prospective employees. “…and over here Sally, next to the cafeteria, is the state-of-the-art Automated External Defibrillator that we use when one of our team members suffers a heart attack at work. When can we expect your response to our salary offer, Sally?”
