[Heel n Toe]

There was a period of time at work (I was 10th floor - 12-story bldg.) when the fire drills were bogus and I protested by "not participating."

The drills were done with the arrival and supervision of the FD, sirens going (3-5 mins. after the alarm as the building was being cleared) and there was an in-house coordinator on each floor who was responsible for checking each office, making sure everyone was out. Nothing wrong with that.

The problem was two-fold (during this period of several years)... first, they always occurred during the 12-1 lunch slot or the 1-2... secondly, 90% of the time, I brought my lunch and ate at my desk, read the paper and/or surfed the net... and I didn't appreciate having to give that up for a sweaty walk down the stairwell and outside, then the trip back up. Always took at least 45 mins. total.

The first problem was what I protested against; if you have a fire drill while half of the people are already out of the building, you don't get a good idea of how long it takes to clear the building.

So for awhile, when the alarm went off, I'd just get up and lock my door and continue my lunch hour. People would knock, etc. but I wouldn't answer. I'd sniff the air once in awhile for hints of smoke, but I wasn't worried.

Later, they changed the policy and everyone had to leave their doors open. So, I talked to the Director of HR and told him he needed to plan the drills at times other than during 12-2 for obvious reasons. He said he would do that, but the next three or four (usually 2 drills a year) were still bogus. I stayed in the building and told the coordinator why... and called the HR dude each time after the drill was over.

They finally fixed the problem.