Microsoft stops traffic for its interns
Posted Tuesday, July 22 2008 by The JobsBloggers
If I hadn’t been there I never would have believed it.
This past Friday the Microsoft intern program hosted a "Zoo-n Fest" Intern Picnic, which was sponsored by the Zune Team and held at the Woodland Park Zoo (cute name, huh?).
Approximately 1000 interns were invited to the event along with 200 Microsoft employees and senior executives. Interns were treated to a catered dinner and an empty zoo (other than the animals!). The musical performances by Vampire Weekend and Ben Folds were an amazing entertainment. Prizes, great food, great music, networking with execs and a beautiful 75 degree Seattle day!
But if you ask this recruiter, the picnic wasn’t even the true highlight. Interns (as well as recruiters) were informed that to get to the Zoo no one was allowed to drive. Insert complaining (as Redmond on a Friday night can be at least a 45 minute drive from the Zoo)—and we didn’t want to leave our cars at work. I complained along with the rest of the full time employees, but my manager Jeremy said "it will be worth the bus trip over."
So I begrudgingly got on one of the 30+ tour-size buses and waited as the other buses filled up and got into a line. The buses were ready to go at about 5:30 pm on Friday.
Enter the police escorts.
Motorcycle cops cruised around the buses and led us in a police escort convoy for the 15 miles to the Zoo – all while closing down traffic on the 520 bridge and 1-5 North. That’s right - traffic was shut down.
We had a view of Friday night rush hour I had never seen. Interns cheered with glee and took photo after photo of the empty freeway. A trip that normally would have taken close to an hour took around 15 minutes. It was VIP treatment all the way!
Apologies to those who were travelling on that stretch of road Friday evening but it was something I will never forget (and luckily I was on the bus, not watching them drive by). So there you have it... Microsoft will stop traffic for its hires. Totally cool.
- Janelle
12 commentsTagged as: janelle, working-at-msft
Comments
As an MSFT employee, I think it's embarrassing that we'd do that, depending on the effect it had on traffic afterwards. I imagine that it caused a backup that lasted for hours, and I'm just really glad that I made it across just before that happened.
If I'd missed the movie to which I'd already bought my ticket as a result, then instead of being irritated (as I am), I'd be furious.
This is an abuse of money and power by the company in my opinion, and probably (rightfully) ticked off a whole bunch of commuters, both MS and other.
I completely agree with the first comment. This is an abuse of power and money, and a show off.
As per the comments above,
I actually broght this up with one of the troopers who looked like they were in charge during the picnic...
He said that since traffic at any given point was only stopped for a short amount of time (5-10 minutes tops) there should be no major lasting traffic defects and the reason is that by the time they are let go, they will be able to rush forward and very soon hit the exact same traffic position they would have been at if they were allowed to drive the entire time.
I've seen escorts used previously. Would have been far worse for traffic had they allowed thirty busses to fight thier way through the 405 interchange, up to the bridge and then 5 north through the merge.
Think a little before expressing your righteous idignation.
Despite the wisdom of the traffic cops and their justifications for the police escort, it is the PERCEPTIONS of the people affected by it that count and my guess it that the majority of them formed, as a result of this exercise, an opinion somwhat similar to that of the first two postings.
Again, that they are correct or not - it doesn't matter now. The problem is they are stuck with this impression of MS.
How about planning an event to avoid peak hour??
well, be it show or abuse of power, it was an amazing experience :)
Nothing wrong in this, i feel this is kind of pre-planning to avoid and disturb others by passing pile of 30 buses at a stretch. 10-15 mins is a acceptable where in some cases we wait for 1 hour and all during election....plan for the same to avoid confusion and disturbance to the commuter...this applies to any X,Y...not only for MS. its a VVIP treatment..i'm jealous.
Mahes,blr
The buses were not identified as MS-buses so not many should know where they came from.
It was awesome :P
Two things:
1) If slamming on your breaks can start a traffic pile-up, you don't think stopping everyone for 15 minutes will have hours-long repercussions? I think the cop just was toeing the party line in saying that, but inaccurate.
2) "Gee, I wonder who those 30 buses from the eastside are carrying?"
I suspect most people would assume/guess MS even if we weren't responsible.
It doesn't really matter if you think it would slow down traffic or not, everyone else will think it did.
I also don't think there is any way that this could have NOT made traffic worse. Think purely about inflow and outflow. But that is not the point, it is bad PR and a dumb thing to brag about.
Boo on elitist MSFT!
Traffic would have been terrible regardless-- I hit the brakes for a long time on the 520 on Friday evenings. Maybe we even helped traffic since everyone had to slow down for a bit-- no accidents :) It was still pretty cool (but I would have felt the same way had it been another company)
Janelle
As I read that post in my reader, I felt the need to come here and comment about it. Most people will get negative perception of MS after reading this. And perception matters a lot in today's competitive market.