I had a violent strike and attack against me in Algeria in Sahara desert, and luckily no one was seriously injured and contained. Nearly 20 local workers on my site had planned to attack me along with my project engineer because they were fired from the site due to performance and safety-related issues. Saving Changes...
I think maybe the time we were rolling out desktops late at night. It was around midnight, and the lights in the office building were minimal, so it was pretty dark. When it was time to have a break, we headed to the office kitchen which was at the end of the darkened hallway. As we started down the hallway, we all saw the faint figure of someone walking toward us. We called out to them and this figure started moving funny, then suddenly ran toward us moaning like a zombie. We couldn't make out what or who it was, so we all started running in the opposite direction and scattered around the cubicles. This creature bumped into cubicles, making noises, pushing over papers on desks, until they came into one of the cubicles a few of the team were hiding in. Then there was a huge scream, and then laughter. One of our teas members had decided to prank us. Looking back now it was silly, but at the time (I was in my late twenties) it seemed so real.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
We had a similar story in Qatar, in the labor camp in one of the projects but for different reasons. I am not going into details but you reminded me of that day. It was something ..... Saving Changes...
Working in the desert of MENA region is full of unhappy shocking surprises... do not worry Rami I did not mention as well how I handle it at that day when they all attacked me .... God bless my 20 mm thread rod and the survival of the fittest.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Mar 09, 2018 9:45 AM
Rami Kaibni
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I hear you Kevin :-) We all learned the hardway it seems.
I think maybe the time we were rolling out desktops late at night. It was around midnight, and the lights in the office building were minimal, so it was pretty dark. When it was time to have a break, we headed to the office kitchen which was at the end of the darkened hallway. As we started down the hallway, we all saw the faint figure of someone walking toward us. We called out to them and this figure started moving funny, then suddenly ran toward us moaning like a zombie. We couldn't make out what or who it was, so we all started running in the opposite direction and scattered around the cubicles. This creature bumped into cubicles, making noises, pushing over papers on desks, until they came into one of the cubicles a few of the team were hiding in. Then there was a huge scream, and then laughter. One of our teas members had decided to prank us. Looking back now it was silly, but at the time (I was in my late twenties) it seemed so real.
In my first full-time job in the (very) early 90's, I was supervising the relocation of some of our servers from one floor down to the next. We had a state-of-the-art (at the time) IBM RT server which weighed over 100 lbs. As it was being manually moved down the stairs, the worker moving it lost his grip and it careened down a dozen or more steps and embedded itself a few inches into the drywall at the landing.
I was very concerned given the cost of the server and its criticality to our daily operations but when I opened it up and restarted it the only casualty was one 3.5" hard drive which hadn't been fully secured to the frame and had gone into brief free-fall.
They don't make 'em like that anymore!
Kiron
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Mar 09, 2018 9:18 AM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Man I had totally forgotten about the old 3.5" floppy.
In my first full-time job in the (very) early 90's, I was supervising the relocation of some of our servers from one floor down to the next. We had a state-of-the-art (at the time) IBM RT server which weighed over 100 lbs. As it was being manually moved down the stairs, the worker moving it lost his grip and it careened down a dozen or more steps and embedded itself a few inches into the drywall at the landing.
I was very concerned given the cost of the server and its criticality to our daily operations but when I opened it up and restarted it the only casualty was one 3.5" hard drive which hadn't been fully secured to the frame and had gone into brief free-fall.
They don't make 'em like that anymore!
Kiron
Man I had totally forgotten about the old 3.5" floppy. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Mar 09, 2018 4:53 AM
Replying to Kevin Drake
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Working in the desert of MENA region is full of unhappy shocking surprises... do not worry Rami I did not mention as well how I handle it at that day when they all attacked me .... God bless my 20 mm thread rod and the survival of the fittest.
I hear you Kevin :-) We all learned the hardway it seems. Saving Changes...
Lenka PincotChief of Staff to the CEO| Project Management InstituteParis, France
I was once on a large project with PM who was brand new in his role. He was a niche specialist before, king in his own kingdom, never willing to compromises in his field. He seeked for a promotion and worked himself to get the job, big transformation project with high visibility. From the very beginning there was big tension among team members because a lot of specialists from other areas did not want to work with him given the previous experience. On top of that the PM did not cooperate with more moderate people like business analysts who were giving him good advice on how to plan the project etc. Long story short, he ended up alone in his hotel room with heart attack and was found late. That’s very sad story indeed. Saving Changes...
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