I’m in Southern California where it is pretty much constantly wildfire season. One time, there was a fire that was advancing toward our building. The whole area behind the building was on fire, planters and trees in the parking lot were on fire, embers were flying, and smoke was everywhere.

We were in the process of attempting to close the store and evacuate the building since it would soon no longer be safe to be in the building. We had customers who refused to stop shopping or leave.

Customer: “I can’t leave now! My coupons are expiring today!”

One of my favorite managers turned to her.

Manager: “Lady, if the store is still standing tomorrow and doesn’t burn down, you can come back then and use your coupon!”

This story was related to us by our safety officer. Years ago, he was working in a large refinery and they had a safety drill every last day of the month. Everyone knew when the drill was due; coworkers kept reminding each other, “Have your badge/dosimeter/mask with you.” At the sound of the sirens, all quickly donned their gas masks and reached the gathering points in an orderly fashion. The safety service reported a 100% preparedness level.

It was too good to be true.

Together with a few practical-minded colleagues, the safety officer lobbied for having a more realistic test, so one day, the sirens sounded unexpectedly.

It was mayhem all around, but one event took the cake. Two workers were doing a job on an elevated platform and had forgotten their gas masks at ground level. One of the two, in the safety officer’s own words, “crapped himself and made his peace.” The other, less fatalistically, jumped from the platform in an attempt to reach the gas mask and broke both legs.

The refinery management, upon receiving the preparedness level numbers, took action. Their first decision, effective immediately, was to return to preplanned end-of-the-month drills with no exception.

I work in a bakery. I’m packaging up some bread when a customer asks me to box her up a cake from the cold case. I tell her I’ll be right there and go to change my gloves.

As soon as I turn around to where the gloves are, she starts ordering. I’m too far away to hear her.

Me: “Oh, sorry, one more second. I just need new gloves.”

Customer: “Oh, you don’t have to do that for me.”

Me: “I have to comply with the standard food safety rules.”

Customer: “I’m not worried about all that [health crisis] stuff. Masks don’t work, so I don’t care about any of that.”

Me: “I need to change my gloves because of cross-contamination. If I’m bagging up bread, I can’t use the same gloves for your cake.”

She said something else because she just had to have the last word, but I stopped listening. Did she think food prep workers wearing gloves started because of a disease?

My friends and I are on voice chat while playing a game together. All of a sudden, a siren is blaring through one of the mics.

Friend #1: “That’s the fire alarm. I’ve got to go.”

He disconnects immediately and we wait to hear from him.

Friend #2: “So he’s, what, doing a Masters, then?”

Friend #3: “I guess so.”

Me: “He is? How’d you tell?”

Friend #4: “Well, he’s in halls, yeah?”

Friend #2: “Yeah, he had to leave for the alarm.”

Me: “But it’s a fire alarm. Wouldn’t you have to leave, anyway?”

Friend #2: “Nah. At home y’know it’s only set off if you’ve burnt your food like an idiot.”

Friend #3: “Pretty much.”

Friend #4: “Where do you live that you’d have to leave for it?”

Me: *Laughing nervously* “Where my dad will press the button to set it off and time how long it takes us to react.”

Friend #2: “Dear God.” *Laughs*

Friend #3: *Shocked* “Your dad makes you do fire drills?”

Me: “Yeah, it’s kinda annoying, every few months or so whenever he feels like it.”

Friend #2: “Even so, that’s crazy.”

Me: “Is that… Is that not normal?”

Friend #3: “Nope, not really.”

Friend #4: “My dad never did that with us.”

Friend #2: “Yeah, never heard of that before.”

[Friend #1] returned shortly after this conversation, and thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious. That said, I’m more than a little concerned about how relaxed everyone was about fire alarms.

For the record, I’d be less annoyed if our home “fire drills” were done properly. The fire alarm’s at the foot of the stairs, and my dad stands there until he’s seen us three kids have responded enough to be visible from where he’s stood, and then everyone goes back to what they were doing. Very annoying to have come down the stairs and wait for minutes while the alarm is blaring in my ears, not allowed to just go open my sisters’ bedroom door and yell at them to move already because Dad wants to let them “dig their own grave” and when they eventually arrive yell about how they’d have burned to death by now.

I manage a vape shop. Today, a customer casually revealed his mod battery and I noticed that it was half unwrapped. The top half still had plastic over it, but exactly half of the bottom part was peeled off so that it was just bare metal. For those who don’t know much about vaping, the whole “exploding” battery issue is due to poor battery safety, namely using batteries that aren’t properly wrapped. They don’t necessarily explode, but they vent, which is when they open up and the chemicals inside are released as a gas. The battery does get very, very hot, enough to burn you or catch anything touching it on fire.

If your battery isn’t properly wrapped and the revealed metal bumps into a metal surface while inside the mod, it will begin to arc and then vent. Even putting it on a charger or leaving it laying around like that is dangerous. I immediately pointed it out to the guy, assuring him that it was 100% not safe to continue to use that battery unless he got a new wrap for it. I explained what would happen if it touched metal inside the mod, but he absolutely did not care.

Customer: “Yeah, it’s been like that for a while, but I only use it if my other ones are dead.”

Me: “I get that, but it needs to be rewrapped or replaced because the second it touches metal, it’s going to vent and you can get seriously burned.”

Customer: “I’ll get a new one eventually, but this one still works fine, so I’ll just use it for now, thanks.”

We have little pamphlet things with battery safety instructions on them, so I grabbed one and told him to take it. He thanked me but proceeded to ball it up and shove it into his pocket.

Honestly, I wanted to hop over the counter and beat him with the Swiffer duster, but I had other customers waiting, and he obviously wasn’t going to listen because he was walking out the door. I really hope he doesn’t come back because I don’t want it happening in my store.