Oh dearie

[jethrien]

The doorknob on one of our two office bathrooms is broken. As in, you can open the door from the outside...but once you're in, there is no longer a way to get out.

One of my poor coworkers got stuck in there for a couple minutes before someone heard her banging. (There's now a big sign on the door until it gets fixed.) But that made us all remember the times that each of us have been here late at night and alone. What would have happened if it had broken on Friday instead, and the last person in the office had gotten stuck?

Well, that's a horrible way to spend a weekend, isn't it?

Comments

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

No cellphone reception inside the restroom?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Who brings their cell phone in the bathroom? This is in our office - it's not like we're leaving the building. I'm not going to haul my briefcase in there a couple times a day.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Well, I keep my cell phone in my pocket most of the time, so it comes to the bathroom with me. Seems to me that if you were really going to be stuck all weekend, you could be forgiven for kicking the door down, though. Or is it too sturdy for that? Maybe a conveniently placed carding card or l-slide, as appropriate, would be a good emergency measure? Unless it's a sturdy door with a deadbolt, in which case you're really just stuck.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

My pants don't have pockets big enough to comfortably hold a cell. And my skirts don't have pockets at all. (Women's business casual isn't big on useful pockets.) All I usually have with me is my id card.

But it's a sturdy door. There's a deadbolt, but that part still worked. The regular door handle was no longer connected in any meaningful way to the actual part of the lock that extrudes into the doorframe. But it wasn't like it's falling off - you still can't get at the mechanism. And I don't know how to pick a lock with a credit card, or if that can be done when the handle no longer engages the lock.

I guess if I really faced an overnight stay, I could probably destroy my id card using it as a screwdriver to take the knob off the door. Alternatively, to take the door off the hinges.

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

At least as long as there's water, you're just faced with an unpleasant weekend--it's not life threatening unless there are some kind of pre-existing medical problems involved. It would make for a good story, too :)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, not life-threatening. Just really, really unhappy.

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

As a precautionary measure, you should put small battering rams inside all the bathrooms :)

[jeths-mom.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking chuckro wouldn't let you go missing for an entire weekend. You might spend a panicked few hours until he broke into the building, but what's the point of a significant other if not to notice when you don't show up?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, I'd cal her cell around 7pm and leave a "Are you coming home" message. Then I'd call her office around 7:30 and leave a similar one. Then I'd call any coworkers I could around 8:30, immediately followed by the museum security if I couldn't get any of them. If we reached 9:00, and I haven't heard from her since midafternoon, then we start using The Voice.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to disappear for the entire weekend without Chuckro coming to rescue me. But some of my coworkers are single and don't have that advantage.

[jeths-mom.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm sorry for your co workers - they all really should set up some kind of reliable network just for that type of reason. Fortunately, we have The Voice, or I'd have to live much closer and/or have a way high phone bill.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

I worry about this sort of thing, actually.