Novell Cares About Me

I was supposed to be on a flight from Northwest Arkansas (XNA) to Chicago (ORD) today. I gathered from rumors and first-hand accounts that a tornado touched down pretty close to O’Hare. So I am actually pretty happy that my flight got canceled and that I don’t have to experience severe wind shear and a nerve-wrecking descent.

I heard from Tim Daneliuk, a co-worker who lives in Chicago, that our company actually called him to see if he was OK. He lives in the Chicago area, fairly close to O’Hare, so it is a pretty nice thing for the company to do.

I book all my flights though our company travel engine. They must have done a query against the travel database, because I was sent an email asking me to respond with my status! Once I let them know that I am safe, they responded with a kind message.

I’m not sure if it is something that my company just started, but it is a pretty nice thing for them to do. They didn’t call me when the bridge collapsed near my apartment, so it must either be a recent thing or they are smart enough to know that I wasn’t in Minneapolis at the time. I wonder how many other companies do something like this.

Please note that I did deviate from my normal cynicism and sarcasm for this post.