Wednesday, September 12, 2007

No to Fire Drills, Yes To Life!

There was an old lady in a village who used to live alone. She always had a fear of robbers. The villagers assured her that whenever she will call for help, they will immediately come over.

One day the villagers heard the lady shouting "चोर चोर". They quickly gathered outside her house to catch the thief. But to their surprise there was no one else other than the lady. She said "I was skeptical wheather you people will turn up for my help but now I am happy as you have put all my doubts to rest". The villagers were very disappointed.

One fine evening, the lady again raised the alarm "चोर चोर". This time no one turned up for help. Next morning villagers came to know that the robbers had looted all her valuables and had beaten her Black and Blue. That was the Fake Alarm Effect.


I was in a team meeting. There was an important discussion going on. Suddenly, we heard a sharp and shrill sound of the fire alarms installed in our office building.

I exclaimed: "Oh No! Not again".

Everyone had a disappointed look on their face. My manager was quick to react as he feared the worst, A Fire Drill.

Manager: "Puneet, can you please check if this is a false alarm for a fire drill."
Me: "Fine. if it's a false alarm I will come back to inform But if there is a real fire, then please don't expect me back"

Everyone in the conference room laughed as I went outside to check out the situation. People outside had a grim look on their face. The guard told me with full seriousness that it is a fire drill and everyone is required to leave everything as it is, and reach the lawns as fast as possible that too without using the lift.

It was actually disappointing as I, like everyone else, would be required to stand in the sun and learn the usage of fire extinguishers. This happened for the 6th time in my small career of 4 years.

I sincerely hope that in case of a real fire, the alarms will sound differently to convey the right message. Otherwise in all probability like that lady, I too will become the victim of Fake Alarm Effect :-)



Share your experience of fire drills :-)


4 comments:

Shantanu said...

Yeah a similar thing happened when I was in Vienna, even there it seems that they conduct Fire Drills or rather Fake Alarm Drills. But we were rude enough not to leave the presentation and go out in the open. Finally they switched off the powewr supply just to get us out ;-)

Shantanu

Ritu Kohli said...

how long did you stand in the sun? we had to stand for 2 long hrs recently as along with the fire drill, the bomb squad ppl were also called...what with all the recent bomb scares, companies can't be too prepared even if it comes at the cost of 6000 man hours ...

Puneet said...

oh!... 6000 man/woman hours :-(
especially when the hours are of man/woman working in ms.
please dont tell the officials out here.. i dont want to stand for 2 hrs :-)

Puneet said...

hey Tima, the post was only meant to freak u out,
and thanks for acknowledging that u got bugged by it.
Stay tuned for some more coz I will bug you to craziness.