Fire Drill brings out the SCs

[rose_metal_nz]

I remember a bomb threat when I was at college; the entire complex, consisting of the college, an adult education centre and two schools, had to be evacuated.

I and my fellow students went down the pub and had a rip roaring party that went on all afternoon. To be safe from the blast, of course.

Our CEO hops between our 3 main cities - and was present for one of our fire drills. Apparently he caught onto a bunch of the senior managers taking advantage of a fire drill on a lovely sunny day as an excuse to pop into the nearby bar for a drink... or 5. Said practice was heavily condemned, and going to said bar during working hours all but banned bet the bar lost a lot of customers!

That being said, in my apartment building jokers are pulling the fire alarm switch all the time, or stupidly setting it off (burnt toast = open THE MAIN DOOR TO THE HALLWAY ... NOT!!!) ... It's gotten to the point now where when it goes off, nearly everyone just walks out onto their balconies. We have a nice chat with our neighbours every time

[Lace Neil Singer]

We were cool; we went up to the guy who was in charge of the evacuation and asked him if it would be alright to go down the pub. He laughed and said yes, we'd be safe there if there was a bomb and it went off. XD

It actually turned out to be a hoax; the police did eventually catch the hoaxer, who wasn't one of the students but one of the older kids of one of the schools.

[bainsidhe]

"Can I take my shopping out with me?" Have you paid for it? No? Well it's not your shopping yet then, is it?
"But if I leave my basket / cart here, someone else might take it!"

Oh good grief I heard these same excuses when the drill went off for real. That and SCs just outright refusing to budge because they still have shopping to do dammit! Yes, I did get yelled at by a few people because I dared to tell them the alarm was screeching overhead and that meant get out now Now NOW!

[PepperElf]

Well, since we can't time the actual fires to occur during non-business hours, don't you think it makes sense to run a drill at a time when we would actually be in a realistic scenario?

Depends. Granted most of my professional fire drills was with the military so we didn't have to deal with SCs or profit-losses. If you weren't part of the drill you had to get the hell out of the way - or face the consequences.

as for a business model ... i'm not sure on that one myself. I can picture the customers at say my store and watch them scream and threaten to complain to corporate about the inconvenience since it's not a real fire. especially since every morning they push the concept of closing a sale etc. so throwing a sale away isn't something they'd be supporting if they could prevent it.


that's why i was wondering if this was a state / region requirement or something your company itself required.

[iradney]

I admit though... I do find it odd that a store would authorize a fire drill during business hours.

I can see running one maybe an hour or two before the store opens as training for the employees and testing the stem... But during normal business hours.... it just seems like a bit of a sales risk to me. An open store that's preventing sales and encouraging customers to shop elsewhere etc...


Granted I see you had to coordinate with the FD and only had to do it for 15 minutes. It still could mean a loss for your company.

What does it matter? It's logical to do a firedrill in relatively realistic circumstances, with customers in the store etc. Not to mention that corporate will not like the idea of having to pay OT for employees coming in early/leaving late for a fire drill. They were done in 15 minutes. Better a 15 minute loss from a fire drill than a mass action law suit because the store burnt down and thanks to no fire drill training, people lost their lives.

[LillFilly]

My last mall had some alarm issues; the alarm for the sprinkler would sound because the city was working on the water lines and when pressure dropped the alarm would trigger. We always made an announcement that it was a false alarm and if it was a real emergency security would begin evacuations. Cue us coming around the corner of the foodcourt mid-day on a saturday to find it EMPTY. A store employee rushing past asked why the fire department was evacuating us. We told her the fire department wasn't even here because it was a false alarm. She said some guy in a jacket with a fire department logo and a pager had announced he was a fire fighter, this was a fire and for everyone to leave. When we got a description it turned-out to be the adult special-needs son of a real area fire fighter who was obsessed with being a firefighter himself and would report 'fires' to us several times a week. Only this time he went too far in deciding to impersonate a firefighter. I believe he was not welcome in the mall again, as he caused a panic and cost us a day of sales.

[Ironclad Alibi]

How were people not on the first floor supposed to get out, then?

The building had multiple stairwells.

[crazylegs]

I admit though... I do find it odd that a store would authorize a fire drill during business hours.

I can see running one maybe an hour or two before the store opens as training for the employees and testing the stem... But during normal business hours.... it just seems like a bit of a sales risk to me. An open store that's preventing sales and encouraging customers to shop elsewhere etc...

Every company that I've worked for has always placed safety highly and as such we used to test alarms & do drills during opening hours so that the staff could practice what they actually had to do so should a real evacuation occur. People would be so used to the drills that ushering people from the store calmly is second nature.

My last retail job included responsibility for all H&S type stuff and drills were my decision (as to when & times). I would liaise with the store manager out of professional courtesy but neither he or I would announce that a drill would be taking place - after all if you know it's a drill then how can it be a true practice?

[Lace Neil Singer]

In my experience, customers are just as thickheaded whether it's a drill or real emergency; as I mentioned in another thread, when I worked at the garden centre we had an actual emergency in the form of a flood warning. The store was near to the river, which was predicted to burst its banks, so we had to evacuate. Despite us having the radio set to a station that was giving the flood warnings, and telling customers that they had to get out, people STILL were whining about not being able to finish shopping.

I also had an email from someone about a Walmart near them that was actually on fire, and stupid customers were still refusing to leave. Maybe we need the power to declare people officially dead if they refuse to leave during an emergency like a fire; if they do survive, then all the paperwork they have to fill in afterwards to register as a live person might put them off being a twat the next time.

[PepperElf]

after all if you know it's a drill then how can it be a true practice?

yes, that's true - and what we always did in the navy.

it's just something i haven't personally seen done in retail before - drills during business hours that is. even where i work i haven't seen it done. granted im not there every day (thank goodness for that!) but most of our training is done before the store opens. and if it's important everyone-must-participate kind of stuff they save it for Sundays when the store opens later.


don't get me wrong - i'm not saying a store is wrong for doing fire drills. i just find it ... kinda interesting... mainly since where i work they keep hounding us about closing the sale. so it's not something i can imagine my bosses doing.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Just a day or two after I post about the closest thing to a fire drill we had at my current job was the earthquake last summer...

We have a fire alarm go off at the building where I was this morning. It was before I started for the day-- I had literally just logged into my computers, so I had to lock them, then grab my stuff and head out the door.

It was either a drill or a false alarm, because after about fifteen minutes, we were let back into the building.

[wolfie]

I remember a bomb threat when I was at college; the entire complex, consisting of the college, an adult education centre and two schools, had to be evacuated.

I and my fellow students went down the pub and had a rip roaring party that went on all afternoon. To be safe from the blast, of course.

Definitely not a false alarm, since a bunch of students actually got bombed.

[star82869]

Where I work (picture a 10 story office building) we have a timed fire drill every year. Last year one of out clients actually tried to get back in the building while people were still leaving it & this yuzt got all pissy & claimed that he lost $10k in the 10 minutes he was not allowed in the building. What. A. Tool. So glad he's gone now.

[NorthernZel]

We had a fire drill at The Funny Farm where I worked, that fire drill was very essential re: a special OSHA certification we had applied for and all workers got notice in advance, as well as told that it was VERY important that everybody cooperated in order for the place to get the certification.

Come fire drill day, we hear the klaxons blaring and we all scramble down for the roll call... that is, all except for ALL the managers, who were in a middle of a meeting and obviously thought: "eh, eff that, it's only a drill, let's continue".

Let's just say that the drill coordinator was less than amused, management were grumbingly led to the yard where the other workers stood, and we got our certification anyway.

[mariamousie1]

She got rather pissy with him and said, "Oh, yeah, anything to interrupt business and get out of work."
WTF???

"Yes, I admit it. I felt so lazy that I used my telekinetic powers to set off the fire alarm just so I wouldn't have to assist you. I hate working here, I never should have dropped out of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."