Lock down!

I had to go to a company today that had a lobby with no receptionist and only a telephone with a list of names and extention numbers. It was at an electronics company that we do graphics for. They don't do work for the general public and not having a receptionist is kind of a trend here.

I arive at this place and go in this so lobby/ waiting area. Go up to the phone and find the extention number of the engineer I need to meet with and called him. He was at his desk and answered his phone and said he'd be down in five minutes. Most of the time people don't answer their phone and so you wait and hope they check their messages.

So I sat there waiting. Looking around. I'm the only person. Photos of circuit boards and stuff like that on the wall. A big poster thing that said what the company was about. Cheap but comfortable office furniture, and I got to thinking how it wouldnt' look too bad in my house,..I seem to always have this same thought in places like this,.. Safety information in a binder on the coffee table. (which I scan through) I was isolated in there, like one of those rooms where you could be on candid camera or something. I looked around for a hidden security camera, but couldn't find one.

After a while the door to the inside of the company opened and there was my contact and I went in with him. It was one of those security card doors. There was a coat rack with a bunch of blue anti-static coats so I had to put one of those on and some shoe straps so I wouldn't zap any boards if I happened to touch one. Standard protocol. We have our meeting and I get shown back to the coat room. I remove my coat and shoe straps and go back through the security door and back into the lobby alone. I head to the door that leads outside and it's locked! It was the end of the work day and they'd locked the door! I go back to the security door and of course it's locked! I'm locked inside the lobby, and most likely nobody else is going to show up as it's the end of the day! All of the employees go out a different door.

For some reason I had left the cell phone in my car. Didn't think I'd need it. So I go back to the receptionist phone. I only know two people at this company, the guy I just met with and a purchasing agent. We had just been to the agent's cube and I knew he was gone for the day. And my contact told me he was in a hurry to leave also. I tried his extention but no answer.

So I scaned down the list of numbers and decide to try shipping and receiving. I called shipping and receiving and a guy answers. "I'm a vendor locked in your lobby, could you send someone over to release me?" Five minutes later a guy in a blue anti-static coat opens the door and leads me to the door the employees go out.

I think we might have a safety issue here,..