Work Breaks

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120488460#Comment_120488460

Well at least the laser printer will warm up more quickly if there's a fire 😁

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120488566#Comment_120488566

A cloud system would be helpful but like you said, not everyone will clock or swipe.

The only place I've seen a swipe system work efficently was in a pharma factory where the rules were very severely enforced. If you didn't swipe in through the main entrance, your swipe wouldn't work on any of the internal doors. Essentually you were trapped in the front hall. You were constantly swiping to get from one room to the next. The system was designed to track who was where so that they knew which room everyone was in. It was a poxy place to work.

Everywhere else I've worked, they've not worked 100%. The reason being is that someone will swipe in and out of old fashioned politeness, they'll hold the door for the person behind them. Therefore, they mightn't swipe in. Same principle when leaving the building. We used to call it tailgaiting.

Clocking wouldn't work either as people don't clock out if they are going to a meeting offsite etc. And a few grades in the public service don't have to clock eitherways.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120492314#Comment_120492314

Exactly the same here. Only place I've worked where they had it as a safety feature (who's on site) you had to pass through a security and a single person turnstile to get on and off the site. Pharma as well. Same with many buildings on the site. Microsoft was the same. Lots of doors, lots of swiping. They would have a good idea where everyone was at any time.

Anywhere else I've been its just for timekeeping/Flexi/Security.

Hotblack Desiato

But if there's a fire you can't have people going through a single person turnstile to get out!

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494010#Comment_120494010

It's that what you think happens?

Have you never been in a fire drill in large building?

Hotblack Desiato

Yes they're usually appallingly organised, e.g. "We can't open the fire exits, they have break glass units and we don't want to spend a few € / don't have any spares" (this happened in a previous workplace of mine)

Of course because everyone had only ever entered / exited through the main door most people had no idea that the fire exits existed, which rendered them all but useless

In my current workplace we have motorised doors locked with card readers, these are all supposed to unlock and motors deactivate (so doors remain closed but can easily be pushed open) when the alarm goes off but this never happens. Pressing a button to exit in a fire drill and wait for the door to ever so s.l.o.w.l.y. open is one thing but in a real fire? Been like that for years and endless complaints about it.

Wouldn't surprise me one bit in your example if the "drill" involved everyone filing out through the bloody turnstile, just because!

The whole point is to get people out ASAP using any available exit (and ideally practice with the usual exit blocked) because if they've never done it before when it happens for real they'll panic and/or revert to what they always do.

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494539#Comment_120494539

There's a slot for a plastic 'prong' type key underneath nearly all types of break glass units that allows them to be set off without breaking the glass.

If you and others have complained to management about the doors not opening properly in the event of a fire and have gotten nowhere, you can make an anonymous complaint to the HSA or to your local fire service. The fire service especially would be very interested in things like that.

They'd also be interested to know that people don't know where the fire exits are. Fire training is mandatory and that would include knowing where the exits/fire assembly point is.

Cuddlesworth

In my opinion, I'd imagine if you went back 30 years ago you would find it was implemented to try avoid a problem at the time, like mid 90's boozy lunch's or people in the office taking very long extended lunch breaks.

Hotblack Desiato

Not the type of break glass units to set off an alarm, there was a glass cylinder in the locking mechanism so when you pressed on the exit door handle, it crushed the cylinder, the door opened and couldn't be closed again unless the cylinder was replaced with a new one.

This was the 1990s and the doors were old then so it was quite possible that spares were unobtainable. Daft design. This was the workplace where nobody knew about the fire exits because the drills involved everyone going out the main door. (The assembly point used to be on a traffic island just a few metres away from massive plate glass windows too, in a building which regularly got bomb threats in the 1990s. Duh. They eventually moved it a couple of hundred metres away) Also there was war after one drill when the entire HR section refused to budge!

The issue in my current job is not that the motorised doors won't open (they're fire doors and supposed to remain closed to slow the spread of smoke, unless they're being used) it's that they don't unlock when the alarm sounds. Imagine e.g. a visitor trying to find the exit button with the lights out and the place filling up with smoke.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494695#Comment_120494695

But you could always leave at lunchtime as you're clocked out for that time. (And a few never did make it back from the pub on a Friday afternoon, but magically still got clocked in...)

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494695#Comment_120494695

Yep, that's probably the story alright. That shows that managers can't manage their staff and have to tell lies and blame health and safety and insurance for putting in those rules.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494539#Comment_120494539

I was referring to assembly areas and fire wardens. That you didn't mention either I have to assume you've never been through a properly organized fire drill. But in a place where fires exits aren't used and tested already told us that. Turnstile wasn't used in a fire drill.

Flinty997

Seems to have gone off topic quite a bit, from work breaks.

Hotblack Desiato

Yeah. In that 1990s workplace it was only the most junior grade (which made up ~25% of staff) who were not allowed leave the building at lunchtime.