Wednesday, February 09, 2005

I'm pretty sure I know how to work a door

I'm pretty sure I know how to work a door. Or at least I thought I did. This afternoon, we had an All Hands meeting at work. It was in a different building from where I sit, so I decided to dial in because I wanted to work during the meeting. The rest of the people on my floor went to the meeting, but I decided to close my door just in case the noise disturbed anyone who might be around.

During the call, I heard my name paged over the intercom. Since the door was closed, I couldn't hear the number I was supposed to dial. I went to open the door and found out that I was locked in my office. Something was wrong with the door handle on the inside of my door, and it wouldn't open. I tried pulling on the door, kicking it (because that should help), yelling for help, etc. Nothing worked.

I had to disconnect from the All Hands meeting so that I could call someone to come let me out. I started with people on my floor, but they were all at the meeting. So I tried the woman in charge of facilities, but she didn't answer. So I then called the front desk, who said they'd send someone over. Within a few minutes, someone came over and let me out of my office. But in order to prove to him that I wasn't an idiot (at least in this case), I demonstrated the problem for him. In fact, I had him lock himself in my office (with me outside) just to prove it wasn't just me.

According to facilities, the building has settled over time and my door latch got stuck. They hope to fix it in the morning. I should be safe as long as I don't shut myself inside again until it's fixed.