work

I often travel to Washington D.C. as part of my job - and I ride the Metro Red Line when I'm there. I'm familiar with the tracks where today’s accident occurred. I’ve always felt that the Metro staff was courteous, professional, and helpful. I’m interested in learning why today’s accident happened; I doubt that it will influence my decision to continue riding Metro when I visit D.C.

One of my greatest joys is building teams at work who function more like families; they care for each other on a personal level, discovering depths of commonality that were unanticipated, and building very satisfying job environments for every other team they touch.

There are many team members who have kept in touch over the years. They sometimes reach out through a quick instant message, an email, or a comment on my Facebook page. It’s a tremendous encouragement to me that the family link remains long after the day-to-day exposure ends.

Sometimes, when jobs are challenging, they still seek out an opportunity to vent, discover solutions, or talk about how they’ve solved issues. I do my best to encourage them to find ways to connect with the people they work with on very human terms. Some people don't want to share the human connection - but, in my experience, most people relish having a friend at work.

In a world filled with high-stress jobs, high unemployment, and ever increasing demands on our time, it’s sometimes very difficult to remember that the people we work with a humans too. Having a challenge at work? Try to share some personal time with someone and share in each other’s worlds… a cup of coffee can be a great excuse…

As the swine flu begins to impact the U.S. population, hospitals are searching for the best ways to track influenza outbreaks in their area. Suddenly, the product that I work on, Microsoft Amalga UIS, comes to the forefront. Amalga UIS is used by healthcare facilities to collect data from all of their systems to form a complete snapshot of activities. The system is highly configurable; one of our customers, El Camino Hospital in Northern California, has configured their Alamga system to track flu cases. Within a matter of hours, clinicians at El Camino modified a few fields within Amalga to capture information specific to possible flu cases coming through the hospital’s busy emergency room.  The result is a real-time dashboard that is keeping hospital officials appraised of possible swine flu cases at El Camino and will help them respond appropriately should one or more cases be confirmed.

Employees at Intel, Google, and now Microsoft have found themselves receiving a pink slip in the past few weeks. When Microsoft announced their reduction in force today it brought up the altogether too-fresh memories of the Starbucks reduction in force that left me without a job. I'm pleased that my position at Microsoft is safe, but understand that others have not been so fortunate. This distraction has passed - back to work!

In the Seattle tech industry (and beyond) Microsoft is sometimes referred to as the "Evil Empire." This comes from their overwhelming majority in the software market, as well as their relentless drive. The Seattle Times once referred to Microsoft as the "Velvet Sweatshop" because of their plush conditions and high energy level. In my first week back, after 11 years away, I find that much of the culture has remained, although it seems to be mellowing a bit with age.

While the intensity is still higher than other companies I've worked for, it doesn't have the same frenetic feeling as I recall. I must temper this observation since I know that each product group is so isolated from the others that they each develop variations on this theme. The group I am associated with, the Health Solutions Group, has balanced intensity and ingenuity with work-life balance. It may take me a while to understand the correct balance to be a success here.

The first week on a new job is usually fraught with wasted time – hours of boredom, punctuated with moments of panic – such as being introduced to 12 team members  and wondering if you’ll ever remember their names. This becomes even more exciting when your team includes an internationally diverse family, many whose names are unfamiliar.

My first week back at Microsoft was different from other companies. The Orientation courses were only one and a half days long. The rest of the week I spent most of my time working in a structured “on boarding” plan that included filling-out on-line forms and completing on-line classes. I did manage to attend one meeting, and reached out to my team members with lots of chocolate.

I know that I’ll run the gamut of emotions over the next three or four months as I evaluate the new job. There’s always the panic, excitement, despair, and finally joy that comes from being in a new environment, with new opportunities, and making new friends – and maybe reconnect with some old friends too.  I’m excited to have this job and I am looking forward to playing a role in our products.
 

The second-half of Summer 2008 was filled with job searching, resume classes, and interviews. Roaring in with Fall is a new job. After 11 years away, I’m returning to Microsoft. I’m really excited to be joining a great group of folks who are working on software to support healthcare – it’s called Amalga. I’ll be filling the role of a Senior Program Manager – managing project information, schedules, and clients – which I’ve fulfilled in various capacities throughout my career. The team initially interviewed me for a test management position, but felt that my experience and abilities would be better served in the PM position. My office will be in Redmond, about a mile from the main campus. For those who know the area, I’ll be just a couple blocks north of the 520 interchange at 148th street. It might even be walking distance to the Azteca Restaurant – yum. The only challenge might be the commute. It’s about 20 miles through some of the heaviest traffic in Seattle. I should be able to leverage flexible hours, with my ace being the motorcycle’s ability to use the carpool lane. This is the same tactic I used when working at Starbucks. I’ll be sure to post more once I get started!