Get OUT Of The Building!

We had a surprise fire drill at work yesterday. There's nothing like an unnecessary evacuation* just when you're in the middle of something important** to annoy you on a Wednesday afternoon.

But the fun part is we got to go down the fire escape and walk up the street a ways to congregate in front of some poor sod's house. Their dog went ballistic with the excitement of having 50+ strangers standing outside his front fence.

We didn't know the fire drill was going to happen, and one guy in particular was on the phone when the fire warden strode through the hallways, telling people to meet up in the kitchen so we could leave through the fire exit together. I’m not sure if that’s standard procedure (should we all be holed up in the kitchen instead of getting the hell out of the building? What if it’s a kitchen fire?), but we were all making jokes and mucking around about it anyway.

The guy who was on the phone wasn’t really aware of what was going on, so after about ten minutes outside, the exercise was deemed a success and we all piled back up the stairs. Only then did we discover On-The-Phone Guy wandering aimlessly around the halls, perplexed as you like, obviously wondering where everyone had gone.

I joked that he’d missed the Rapture.

But it got me wondering: Should On-The-Phone Guy start to worry about his value at the firm? Is he really that unimportant? Not only did the fire wardens fail to get him off the phone and joining us in the kitchen, but they forgot about him when we all headed down the fire stairwell and no one thought about him when the drill was declared a ‘success’.

If I were him, I’d be worried that no one liked me – or that they were content to let me perish in the flames (should a fire ever start).

The funny thing is I used to be Chief Fire Warden in my old job, so I know perfectly well the importance of fire drills and proper evacuation practice-runs. Maybe I should throw my (shiny red) hat into the ring and offer to be a warden here as well.

It might mean the difference between a real evacuation success story, and the odd unfortunate employee ending up in freshly-baked crispy bite-sized pieces.



* Not a euphemism.

** I was blogging.


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