Another day, another evacuation

Something I missed out on while I was on my leave in January were two evacuations from our office building.  The first occurred the first day I was gone, the second just a week later.  In one instance, there was a pipe that burst in the room on the roof that holds the equipment.  It sent some sort of chemical through the vents dripping onto the carpet in one area of the fourth floor.  In the other, a water fountain sprung a leak flooding the front stairs.  In both cases, some or all of the staff were moved to space we currently rent at another building or sent home to work.

Yesterday we had our third evacuation in less than 2 months. The fire alarm went off at 7:40 a.m. and assuming it was a drill I left without my purse and cellphone.  (That'll never happen again).  It was pretty apparent when there were no firemen at the front door it wasn't a drill but by then it was too late as I would not have been allowed back upstairs.  The fire truck arrived, the firemen cleared the building, and the building maintenance and senior managers went up to check on the situation.  They discovered that a sprinkler head broke in the room on the roof (now referred to as the penthouse), causing the fire alarm to be set-off and flooding a good portion of the top two floors of our building.

We spent 20 minutes or so standing outside waiting for the all-clear before my manager came across the street to tell us to move into the near-by building.  After an hour we were allowed back into our building to pick up our laptops, some work, and any personal items before walking over to our other location to work for the day.  We were met by two of the managers there who directed staff to various floors and areas where space was available; either at an empty desk or to use one where the resident staff member was off yesterday.

Late in the day we were advised that a remediation company had been brought in to assess the damage and that we will not be able to return to our building until a full inspection is completed. (I've been through a basement flood in my old house and I would hope they wouldn't send us back in for at least a week)  Some workers were given the option to work at home because available workstations will be fewer tomorrow.

However, the one positive of the evacuations is that everyone is getting good at picking and moving at a moment's notice.  We've got the procedures down pat.

The building we occupy was renovated about 7 years ago, but to "save" money only the interior was renovated.  The heating and cooling systems were not upgraded, nor were the drafty metal clad windows replaced.  I believe the building was built in the mid-50's or 60's as a two-story building, and later two more floors were added.

This building is owned by the federal government.  To "save" money on space costs we've been told all of the staff in the rental space will be moving into our building.  We're moving toward something called Workplace 2.0.  Not to be confused with overcrowding in prison...but close.  A worker's cubicle is about 4.5 square meters and a supervisor's is slight larger.   If you want to learn more, see the link above though anything relating specifically to government fit-up standards is not available to the public.

The retrofit is supposed to start this summer and be complete by the end of 2017.  Of course, once we all occupy the same building we won't have somewhere else to go during an evacuation.  With the age of the building and its component parts I expect something like this will happen again.  But since I have no control, nor any influence on these decisions, I`ll just go with the flow (maybe literally) and continue to count down the months and days to freedom.

Have a great day, stay warm and dry!