Lobby-tomised 

I work in a two-story office building with six units: two upstairs and four smaller units downstairs. Our office is a small two-office place with a conference room, a reception area, and a large open-concept room for floating desks. There are two entrances: one through the lobby into the reception area and one through the side door in the conference room. That door leads to the parking lot which is enclosed. To access that conference room door, you quite literally have to walk by the lobby to get to it. It also has our company logo prominently displayed on it.

As you know if you read this site, people do not read signs, so occasionally, we get random people trying to open and walk through that door. Oftentimes, they are people who work in the building and have worked in the building for years. As a result, I tend to keep that door locked at all times.

One day, one of my coworkers unlocks it to go to lunch. Since he is quick, I leave it unlocked. Unfortunately, it appears that he doesn’t lock it when he gets back because thirty minutes after he gets back from lunch, the door flies open and some filthy man with no mask is standing there surprised to see that people are using the conference room!

Man: “Uh. I am looking for [Some Moving Company I Have Never Heard Of]. Do you know where they are?”

Me: “Well, not in this office. That is for sure.”

I make a shooing motion for him to back up and stay outside as he takes a step forward. 

Man: “Well, I am looking for [Company]. I don’t know where they can be.”

Me: “Well, I don’t know, either.”

Man: “But I am looking for [Company]. Do you know where that is?”

I’m trying my darndest not to be condescending.

Me: “Did you try the lobby first? There is a placard with all the company names.”

Man: “Where’s that?”

I pointed in the direction he had come from. He looked between me and the lobby door like I was some wizard playing a trick on him before finally scuttling away to check the lobby and the massive directory that he had just walked by! I locked the door right away.