I'd Fire Him

[Heksubah]

I currently work as an Emergency Dispatch Operator for ABC (not the real name) Security Services. My job is to call homes and businesses when alarms, or trouble signals, go off to verify if authorities are needed or to warn them of the problems with their system.

I just got out of training and while I was still in class I had to call on a burglar alarm for a fast food restaurant. Per our call order I called the premise, but got no answer (very close to opening time but not yet open so they weren't picking up the phones). After that I called the number we had listed as our 'before police' contact. It was the boss. I reached him and this is our conversation.

Me: Hi, this is Heksubah with ABC Security Services. I'm calling to notify you of a burglar alarm from Blah Restaurant at Blah Address. You are listed as the emergency contact, would you like the authorities notified?
Boss: *sounding grumpy* No, we don't need the police. My opener came in and couldn't get the alarm to shut off so he ripped the panel off the wall. Can you get me to someone so I can schedule a technician to repair the system?
Me:

So the guy opening apparently decided that, rather than call the boss and go "Eeek, sirens of doom, it won't shut off, save me! Save my ears!" ...that he'd just rip the panel off the wall. If he were my employee... *points at the thread title*

[jackfaire]

My dad used to go on a lot of business trips so he got a traveling preparedness kit in it was a door stop, a smoke detector and something that looked like a very small hand weight. He had me squeeze it. If I hadn't dropped the thing to grab my ears I would have chucked it at his head.

[bainsidhe]

When I worked at *hotel* doing night audit, our silent alarm went off. Something with the sensor, I suppose. And no, I had no idea what the password was to avoid a call to police. My very tired (and forgiving, considering it was 3am) manager called me right back to make sure I was okay before telling the alarm company to ignore it.

[Andara Bledin]

Wow, that's some stupid, there.

I suspect our alarm company is the same one as the OP works for, and we have all sorts of fun with them.

Had an issue a couple weeks ago where an employee was loitering in the back, and got locked in. The manager had tripped and then re-set the alarm before getting out the door. Then the employee that was still in the building tripped the alarm. The alarm company called the manager, who asked it if had been reset, was told it was, and said it must have been her then. At no time did the alarm company think to mention that the alarm had been tripped a second time and not reset again. Poor guy was stuck in the building overnight.

^-.-^

[Dentarthurdent]

When I worked Christmas season overnight retail shifts, the janitor worked for an outside company that contracted to do our floors and bathrooms. Once a week, he had to fire up the propane buffer (which was incredibly loud and shook everything nearby) and shine the floor in the whole store.

Apparently this was the fifth or sixth time he'd done this (I'd only been there a couple of months and hadn't seen it happen before). He insisted on pushing the buffer down all the pharmacy aisles, even though he'd been told specifically not to. I was oblivious to this until...

The cops showed up and were peering in the glass doors with their flashlights, and I went to my supervisor who was like "OH, GOD, <NAME> BUFFED THE PHARMACY AGAIN???" I was puzzled. She explained that there were motion-sensitive alarms behind the pharmacy counter, which were set off by the buffer from five feet away. *groan*

So we had to call his boss, explain things to the cops, call the store manager, and have somebody with pharmacy keys come in early (I'm talking 3 AM here, when they normally started around 9). Not only had this happened before, but he kept working there for at least the next 4 months (which was when I left).

[MadMike]

Back when I first started at my job, back when we were in the old building, our office had alarms that were activated after hours. If you needed to come in at night to fix a problem, you had to use your access badge to get inside, and then deactivate the alarm once you were inside. There was no way to remote in from home like we can do now.

One night, back around late 1990 or early 1991, I got a call and had to come in. I mistyped the alarm code in the first time, but I was pretty sure I got it in correctly before time ran out. The next day, I got a call from security asking if I'd been in and what I was doing, because after I left, the alarms just kept going off for no apparent reason.

Eventually they figured it out. It was during the time of the Gulf War, and a lot of people put these miniature American flags on top of their cubicles, as a patriotic gesture. Sometime after I left, the air vents decided to kick on (no idea why they never came on before I came in), causing the flags to start waving, which in turn set off the motion sensors.

[PepperElf]

"OH, GOD, <NAME> BUFFED THE PHARMACY AGAIN???"

let me guess, was <NAME> job hunting soon after that?

besides some buffers also disrupt power if the circuit can't handle it.

[Dentarthurdent]

let me guess, was <NAME> job hunting soon after that?

besides some buffers also disrupt power if the circuit can't handle it.

No...he was still there a good four months later when I quit...

[Lehk]

let me guess, was <NAME> job hunting soon after that?

besides some buffers also disrupt power if the circuit can't handle it.

that would be a neat trick for a propane buffer to do :P