I'm doing great too, by the way!

I landed on both knees with an enormous crash. Followed by a genuine sideways somersault. In the movies this always looks very spectacular. In slow motion, nicely streamlined, beautifully framed. My performance was nothing of the sort. In a split second I flew through the air like an uncontrolled projectile. And before I really realized it, I was lying in the street.

What on earth had happened? I'd been at a venue in the city. When I went in, the street in front of the entrance was still tidy and intact. But a couple of hours later, when I stepped outside, it had been completely torn open. To my left, huge tangles of thin wire sticking out in all directions; in front of me, a sizable trench in the ground. Not a barrier or a walkway in sight. So to get across all of this, I had to take a big step. And just as I did, one of the wires came up. And I got caught on it. Well, wouldn't you know it. My launch was, in any case, a done deal.

No one was working at that moment; in the 2 vans parked right in front of the worksite sat six men. I saw them all staring at me, gobsmacked. Eventually one of them did get out after all. Only to walk straight over to the tangle of wire. To check the wires and the trench. Huh, seriously? I take a nosedive here and the first thing checked is the wires? How is that possible? From a distance he looked at me, clearly at a loss with the situation. As I scrambled to my feet, furious, I snapped at him, "I'm doing just fine too, by the way, thanks," and walked off, dusting myself down. I could already feel that two bruised, banged-up knees would be the end result of all this.

In America I could have unleashed a serious lawyer on this. Companies get sued there for less. And maybe I'd have been set for life until retirement. But yeah, we're in the Netherlands. It did get me thinking, though. I was angry, a little sad too. This was an unlucky fall, and onward we go. But this is exactly what happens with incidents at work, too. I see it a lot in the production environments I visit. That the first thing looked at is the possible technical damage, the effect on production, "can we keep going now," and so on. But where's the eye for the human being? How does that fare when something unexpected happens? Just a quick "You alright?" "You ok?" Just checking in. A sign that you've seen and heard someone. Doesn't seem all that complicated to me. Right? For these wire-gentlemen, apparently it was. Idiots.