EW at work

[LewisLegion]

I work in a back office for a telecommunications company and since I don't interact with the public I don't generally have stories from work...but one happened today

So, where I work is connected to a store, where customers can come get equipment or pay their bills and such. There is a secure locked door between the store and the back office, and my cubicle is literally less than ten feet from this secure door. Everyone, employee or guest, must be buzzed through the door.

We also have no public bathrooms, but on an occassoin when its an emergency (very elderly person, very young child, pregnant woman, etc) we will have someone escort them through the door and back to our private bathrooms to use the facilities.

So I'm sitting in my cubicle and I hear the door unlatch and open, and a few people come through. I think nothing of it. A few minutes later, one of the other girls in the office sees a young man (maybe early thirties, and yes...relevant) kind of milling around and thinking he's part of a meeting that's going on upstairs, she approaches him. Apparently, he's not...but is actually a customer that followed in on the heels of a few of the suits heading upstairs (a BIG no-no, they held the door for him. Security is looking up tapes to see who it was that did so.)

Keep in mind this girl is about eighteen and fairly timid.

The following exchange ensues:

CW: Excuse me? Can I help you find somewhere?

YM: Yes, I came into the store and I need to use the restroom.

CW (realizing its a customer): I'm sorry, we don't have public restrooms.

YM: Well, I'm NOT the public, I'm a customer. Where are your bathrooms?

CW (a bit flustered): I can escort you back.

YM: Damn right you can! I've been a customer here for twenty years, don't treat me like the public!

She escorts him away and a few minutes later the store supervisor appears and I tell her what happened. Her eyes get wide and after the customer finishes and leaves, she talks to the girl and then security.

So, someone's gonna get in trouble for just letting anyone in through the door without checking ID first, and this righteous asshat got to use our facilities by acting like an entitled douchewagon...but its ok, because apparently he's been a customer of ours since he was about twelve.

[PepperElf]

Ya, sometimes people just automatically do that, thinking the person they're letting in somehow has a right to be in there.

I had an officer on my last ship do that with me. He saw me knocking at a secure door and came over, punched the code in, flung the door open and walked off. He didn't even know who I was! He just assumed I somehow had a right to go inside unescorted... but somehow didn't know the entry code?

(Mike Westin would have a field day with someone like that... )

No, I didn't go in. I'm smarter than that. (plus I'd hate to see how furious the info-sec officer would have gotten had i been stupid.)


On a side note, I once also got tested on that too. On my first ship, the master-at-arms (MAC) came into a access-controlled space along with my dept head. where I was standing watch. I don't know why but MAC asked me for the code for the lock.

Internally I thought "You just came in, why do you need me to tell you the code?" and gave him a look. Then I turned to ask my dept head "Is he allowed to know it?" MAC replied "Good answer!"

[Zoom]

A customer who is NOT the "public"?

That means the man should be willing to PAY to use the bathroom. Private enterprise and all that.

[BlaqueKatt]

A customer who is NOT the "public"?

well he was a "private", or to be more accurate, a DICK.

[morgana]

I've had it ingrained in me that you never, never, never . . . ever, just let someone you don't know into a locked facility.

The office I work in now is badge-coded. The office I worked in until the end of June was badge-coded. I NEVER let anyone follow me in that I didn't KNOW worked there. Fireable offense, both places.

Hell, I've worked in offices where the receptionist could SHOOT YOU if you tried to get in without proper authorization. The 'suits' in the OP story? Could have faced a firing squad in that office.

And maybe that EW *should* . . . Jerk.

[LewisLegion]

Ours is badge-coded for both the back doors, one of which has a badge-coded security gate you have to get through to access as well. The one in the store has to be buzzed open from behind the counter opened from the inside.

Given that we have a LOT of extremely expensive equipment on site (the warehouse for the region is located here, which means a lot of modems, cable boxes, dvrs, computers, and other equipment is on premise)...it makes it a huge no-no to do what the suit did. Unfortunately, depending on his rank in the company, he likely won't be fired for it.

If it was me who did something like that, you can bet I'd be hauling my belongings out to my car before ten minutes was up.

[Draper Mel]

At the last theater I worked at, we had problems with people propping doors open and homeless people getting in and stealing stuff. It was decided that if you saw a door that was supposed to be closed all the time propped open, close it. The people who are supposed to be able to get through will have keys.

[Bandit]

He'd be fired at some of the placed I have worked at - especially the Nuclear power plants. One cannot get in without a pass, and when your are "IN", you can't got "IN" again - i.e. if your buddy of 30 years at the same plant forgets his pass, he has to go home and get it. Even the current nuclear facility gig has that rule.

NO exceptions.

B

[Jay 2K Winger]

I work at a secure facility as well, and yeah, they're pretty damn strict. Granted, you can't just follow someone with a badge in all nice and quick. For starters, you'd have to get past the gate. If you somehow made it past there, you'll have to get past the doors. And it's unlikely you'll pull that off, even at peak times.

That's all I'll say, as anything else would get too close to identifying where I work.

[wolfie]

The office I work in now is badge-coded. The office I worked in until the end of June was badge-coded. I NEVER let anyone follow me in that I didn't KNOW worked there. Fireable offense, both places.

And of the ones you KNEW worked there, how did you know that they hadn't been escorted out after being fired an hour ago, and were coming back to "negotiate" the terms of their separation using sidearms?

[morgana]

And of the ones you KNEW worked there, how did you know that they hadn't been escorted out after being fired an hour ago, and were coming back to "negotiate" the terms of their separation using sidearms?

In both cases of the badged office, the only people I allowed to follow me in were personal friends. As opposed to 'office friends', people I knew worked there but didn't know well. Got some catbutt faces, but nobody ever called me on it. And in the eight years I worked in the Kansas one, no one was ever 'escorted out'.

Haven't worked in the Nebraska one long enough yet to have 'personal friends' in the office. The only person I've ever let follow me in is the person who trained me in my current job.

In the 'they could shoot you' office, I let NO ONE follow me in. Ever. The least that would have happened to me if I had was to lose my job. Might have gotten me shot. Not that anyone tried. That was one thing they *pounded* into our heads.

[PepperElf]

come to think of it, my nephew's daycare was like that.

In order to come inside you had to put in your code number, pick your name from the list (associated with your code), and then pick which child you were there for (dropping off or picking up).

I saw Mom purposefully close the door behind her as she was leaving once, even though another parent was trying to get in.

Other woman: *cue cat-butt-face*
Mom: Oh I'm sorry! They want us to do that.