> when you went looking for room 2352, you didn’t know what color wing it was in.
I worked in building 6 for a while. That was frustrating because the two halves of the building were mirror images. If I had to go to the other side of the building for a meeting, I got disoriented and thought I knew the way back to my office, but I kept getting it wrong. It's like the Upside Down.
Microsoft campuses were always impossible to navigate. The buildings are numbered in the Japanese style, i.e. chronologically.
Why not number buildings on a battleship grid? Building B6 must be adjacent to A6 and B7, as opposed to building 40 being adjacent to 27. Why not prefix the office numbers of an X-wing building with cardinal directions? If you see office N202, and you need office W107, head to the core, down the stairs, and one hallway to the left.
Not to mention that some people always used the golf course code names for clusters of buildings, too... which were never "official" so there wasn't even any signage or anything to refer to for those. I remember being pointed to a pile of "stuff new people ought to know but HR won't tell you" on some random share in NTDEV when I started and it had a map with those marked on it.
The main Redmond campus was shared with other tech companies originally.
Microsoft grew outwards from the original 4, then 6, buildings. I guess they didn't think it'd be worthwhile to rename the buildings once they expanded beyond 4 or 6.
Similarly, buildings 40 and 41 were (at least pre-remodel) roughly mirror images of each other. Roughly a week after moving from 41 to 40 -- long enough to start navigating based on "caveman memory" but not long enough to override a year's worth of previous memories -- I accidentally went into the women's restroom instead of the men's because they too were mirrored.
After working late, I decided to cut through building 17. I had to wash my hands so I went to the men's washroom, assuming the same layout in 17 as in 16.
Hmmm... They painted the washroom walls pink for some reason.
Oh. They've got a condom dispenser in the washroom?!
Ooooh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That's NOT a condom dispenser!
I looked around wildly for any indications besides the dispenser of which washroom I was in. Quickly scrambled for the exit and looked at the door on my way out to discover that building 17 did NOT have the same exact layout as building 16.
Another exasperating thing is that the signs on the wall that were supposed to provide directions by listing which office number range was down which direction were somehow of no help whatsoever. I'd be looking for office number xxx or whatever and following the signs and somehow they'd never take me to the right hallway. People can smirk and say "skill issue" if they want but I swear it's true. Judging by the number of other people who had problems navigating those buildings, I wasn't alone.
I worked in building 6 for a while. That was frustrating because the two halves of the building were mirror images. If I had to go to the other side of the building for a meeting, I got disoriented and thought I knew the way back to my office, but I kept getting it wrong. It's like the Upside Down.