When people behave like that, the umbrella of some corporate behemoth doesn't prevent me from from feeling pessimistic about people (both those in question and often generally.) Sigh!
While it would have been completely reasonable and courteous of MS to accommodate the speaker's wife, it's kind of wild to equate not letting her in to kicking her to the curb/abandoning her.
How is that not kicking her to the curb?
I've spoken at plenty of conferences, and brought my wife along, and have had my share of complications, and my wife has been able to "wing it," as I expect any adult should be able to do.
I'm not saying it's completely absurd that she should have to wing it, but I just don't feel like this is the substance of the issue being presented. His wife is not a helpless child with no money, information or ability to move freely, so I am just not willing to accept that being escorted out (which was stupid in the first place) is tantamount to being abandoned.
And, which is a severe thing, it would also show that me that the other person allows others to treat him that way, something I'd also think I'd not accept at all for myself.
Do they pay their speakers?
Non-speaker could've insisted on speaking to his wife to arrange a time to meet afterwards, fulfilled his presentation/speech, then written a complaint about lack of flexibility later.
For that matter, they also owe the speaker and his wife an apology. Of course, as you could only expect from Microsoft, this has not happened.
Sounded like a pretty awkward situation as it was handled (shouldn't have been led on, and should've been encouraged to speak with his wife to arrange a meeting time later), but the non-speaker seemed a little precious to me.
The article clearly explains this:
> Thinking its a small misunderstanding (security is almost always contracted through the venue not the conference) I went to room 238 to try to figure things out. After explaining the situation going on to three staff members I was given the “opportunity” to buy a ticket (full conference on the last day) for her. They then handed me a shirt and said “you need to head over to your talk”
Basically, the author believed that he could just work something out, so at the time that his wife left, he did not make plans to meet up anywhere, and she did not know what was happening. Furthermore, the conference organizers then said that he needed to go speak immediately, which would have prevented him from letting her know what was going on.
I'm presenting at two conferences in the next week, and my fiancee is luckily able to attend one of them. Not having a seat for her is one thing, but having security bring her out of the building and giving me the "opportunity" to buy a full-price ticket is absurd.
All in all, cut him some slack, he as a very valid point. They could have solved this easily, yet they chose to treat him like he doesn't matter.
That's because some guy is kind of egging on Internet commenters, saying, "oh, she should just be an adult."
I'd know. I'm an expat, and while both my wife and I were eager to come to this assignment, we're not the same when it comes to unfamiliar surroundings. If it'd been me? Sure, I'll be at the nearest espresso bar I can find. Her? I would have done the same thing as OP.
This is all anecdotal, I know. But my point being, its wrong to assume that everyone is capable of just seamlessly taking care of things when you're newly arrived in a foreign country. I'd agree that its frustrating when someone can't, or just feels too nervous or intimidated, but that's something we accept and work around when we select the partners we do. OP was right in choosing his partner first. I'd have done the same.
I wouldn't have been nearly so polite if I were in his situation, and my wife would have a conniption if I were banned from watching one of her talks.
Again, I can't think of a single legitimate reason not to have let his wife go to his talk, and that simple act would have bought a lot of goodwill. The fact that no one was able to make that simple judgement call is a sign of terrible organization.
Very unlikely to be exploited, but I imagine that's what they're thinking. If they are thinking...
"Other speakers' wives were allowed to attend their talks, but my homosexual life parter was escored out by security!"
"I paid $$$ to attend but this speaker brought 5 friends who got in for free!"
If you depend on common sense, you either have to make sure to hire only people who don't misjudge, ever, or have to deal with embarrassing mistakes.
The alternative tends to lead to questionable enforcement, and it's debatable which is better.
You can't qualify customer support and kindness at a company like Microsoft - although I'm sure they have some USER EXPERIENCE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ENGAGEMENT MATRIX with a catchy turn of MBA phrase somewhere.
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/155986277/new-orleans-struggle...
Leaving someone out in a strange foreign city of this nature to just deal with it is absurd.
That said, it sounds like he and his wife were treated horribly.
Both the perfectness and absurdity of this sentence is awesome.
New Orleans may be bad, but it isn't _that_ bad, especially an area that MS (or any big firm) chooses for a company sponsored gathering. If MS was bright had any respect for their speakers they would have dynamically made room available for this speaker's wife in some area inside the conference center. They are idiots for not bending rules doing it. But to also think they shoved her out a door and steel barred the entrance and left her there by herself in the middle of Voodoo Shantytown New Orleans where the creole shamans and werewolves circled her is just as crazy.
I get where the author is coming from and totally understand his stance, but I honestly do not believe that MS intentionally put his (non-invited?) wife in harms way. From his description MS treated him awfully and I hope they realize this and attempt to correct it in the future and see where being human in some instances is indirectly worth more than the price of admission to TechEd, but lets be honest - they didn't make his wife walk the plank to circling sharks.
I've never seen a major conference center that didn't
have a place to drink coffee and read for 2 hours without
being killed.
I got dropped in Paris one day and my friend never showed up, I didn't have a place to go and I didn't know the area or speak French, but I managed to find a guest house and a grocery store and I lived for a few days -- any adult can do the same, this is not rocket science and being a woman doesn't make this more difficult.
Because it's the right thing to do? And because they knew she was coming, and had bought here a ticket?
Sorry, they were wrong. Simple as that.
Seeing as we were that strict when the tickets were in the range of $30-$200 I personally think it was a failure of the initial security guards to even let her in the building to begin with.
Regardless…
> Obviously they didn't expect her to come since he didn't communicate his intentions ahead of time.
That doesn't matter one damn bit.
> You say no to any special kind of request and if the guest insist
Except it wasn't a guest making this request. It was, effectively, the talent. So I'm pretty sure security doesn't make the call when the talent makes a request.
The real issue here was conference organizers being officious and failing to use common sense, which the OP had a legitimate reason to be annoyed about given he was a speaker and apparently went to some trouble and expense. No need to be over the top, it was bad enough without the hyperbole.
It is if they had told her they would let her in and then when they got him separated from her, they lead her out to the street. How is that not kicking her to the curb?
Two hours later, she comes back. "Sorry, I had to give my talk. They didn't give me a choice. I hope you didn't get too bored standing out here waiting for me."
Personally, I applaud the author for realizing that there was, in fact, a choice - and then choosing it.