Management’s Lack Of Concern Is Alarming

Bosses/Owners/Managers, Coworkers, Lazy/Unhelpful, Office, Silly, USA | Working | January 19, 2021

I used to work in an engineering lab that was near an alarmed emergency exit. Because it looked like you could go out that door, cut across the field, and enter the next building — even though the door on the other side was also an emergency exit and couldn’t be opened from the outside — way too many people ignored the red “Emergency Exit, Alarm Will Sound” sticker on the door.

The alarm was so loud that it was nearly impossible to work in the lab while it was going off. It also took security a long time to reset the door because it was far enough away from them that they weren’t bothered by it so it wasn’t a priority for them. It was going off at least once a week, management was doing nothing, and we’d had enough.

Someone in the lab created a large sign and posted it on the door.

Sign: “Atten-shun: This here door be for emergencies only. It will make an infernal racket if you be tryin’ to open it. Then there be engineers waving them rubber mallets at you!”

For six weeks, there was blessed silence. People were observed coming up to the door, bursting out in laughter, and turning around.

Unfortunately, someone in management decided that the sign was too unprofessional, even though the whole building was employees-only behind badge-locked doors, and down it came. The alarms started right back up again.

Eventually, after about a quarter of us had transferred out and another quarter had put requests in the system, they decided that the best solution was just to disable the alarm, even though that created a security hole. Gotta love management.

This story is part of our Best Of 2021: Readers’ Choice roundup!