At whom do we point and laugh today?
The Department of Health Care Services (my Department) and the California Department of Public Health are housed in a complex of four buildings in downtown Sacramento, referred to as Buildings 171, 172, 173, and 174. (Why they’re called that, I do not know, because the numbers do not correspond to their addresses. But I digress.) These buildings are each structured slightly differently when it comes to the lobby area. The building I’m currently in also contains the complex’s auditorium and primary training rooms. The lobby of this building is open to the second floor. The front door to our suite is at the end of a balcony that overlooks the first floor. My office is right inside the front door to our suite, so I get to hear everything that happens in the lobby if it’s louder than a murmur.
The lobby itself has three sets of doors. The first, at the far end of the building from my office, is a set of two double doors with automatic openers that are directly opposite the guard station and are the primary entrance and exit doors for the building. The second and third sets are each double doors as well, but do not have automatic openers. These doors are directly opposite the doors to the auditorium, and thus, much closer to my office. These doors are also clearly marked with signs that read “Emergency Exit Only. Alarm Will Sound”. And yes, these doors are each equipped with a loud, piercing, shrieking alarm that goes off if the door is opened without the alarm having been deactivated beforehand.
BTW, all of our lobbies have large windows, steel columns, marble floors, and no carpeting. They are giant echo chambers.
On a regular basis our auditorium plays host to meetings, press conferences, and other gatherings of people from outside our two Departments. Sometimes, but only rarely, Security will deactivate the alarms on the doors to allow them to be used for the conference goers, thereby alleviating any additional traffic through the main doors. Most times, however, the emergency exit doors remain closed and their alarms active.
Are you with me so far? Can you see where this is going?
Any time one such gathering occurs, it happens without fail that someone will display their ignorance/ineptitude/lack of awareness and open one of those doors.
Did I mention each set of doors is clearly marked with signs that read “Emergency Exit Only. Alarm Will Sound”, and equipped with a loud, piercing, shrieking alarm?
The first few times it happened I jumped and cringed. I still jump. But now it’s to go out the door, lean over the rail, and point and laugh at the idiot who opened the door.
I’m thinking about finding a cheap source for dunce hats.
The lobby itself has three sets of doors. The first, at the far end of the building from my office, is a set of two double doors with automatic openers that are directly opposite the guard station and are the primary entrance and exit doors for the building. The second and third sets are each double doors as well, but do not have automatic openers. These doors are directly opposite the doors to the auditorium, and thus, much closer to my office. These doors are also clearly marked with signs that read “Emergency Exit Only. Alarm Will Sound”. And yes, these doors are each equipped with a loud, piercing, shrieking alarm that goes off if the door is opened without the alarm having been deactivated beforehand.
BTW, all of our lobbies have large windows, steel columns, marble floors, and no carpeting. They are giant echo chambers.
On a regular basis our auditorium plays host to meetings, press conferences, and other gatherings of people from outside our two Departments. Sometimes, but only rarely, Security will deactivate the alarms on the doors to allow them to be used for the conference goers, thereby alleviating any additional traffic through the main doors. Most times, however, the emergency exit doors remain closed and their alarms active.
Are you with me so far? Can you see where this is going?
Any time one such gathering occurs, it happens without fail that someone will display their ignorance/ineptitude/lack of awareness and open one of those doors.
Did I mention each set of doors is clearly marked with signs that read “Emergency Exit Only. Alarm Will Sound”, and equipped with a loud, piercing, shrieking alarm?
The first few times it happened I jumped and cringed. I still jump. But now it’s to go out the door, lean over the rail, and point and laugh at the idiot who opened the door.
I’m thinking about finding a cheap source for dunce hats.