3 ms·

Because the fire alarm is actually on someone's radar. it's been reported up the chain, budget requests have been submitted, it's on checklists and slide decks

Because the fire alarm is actually on someone's radar. it's been reported up the chain, budget requests have been submitted, it's on checklists and slide decks etc etc. In other words, someone would notice if it magically got fixed. But if your cell signal suddenly goes from zero bars to three bars in the building, nobody is the wiser.

notch656a 4y ago
Yeah I mean I don't work for the government so I guess it doesn't make sense to me. So what, they show up and it's fixed. What's gonna happen, is someone seriously going to get fired / prosecuted for fixing the fire alarm? I presume if no one is ratting you out for the repeater they're not going to rat you out for the fire alarm, and even if they do the consequences can't be worse for fixing a life-saving alarm vs a possibly frivelous repeater.
- GlenTheMachine 4y ago
  Probably not, but once you get high enough up in management, the pain issue really starts to become "how much paperwork will I be required to do?" And in the case of obviously spending money to do something that was someone else's job, the answer is "a surprisingly large amount." It's worth noting that a) this is a very complicated fire alarm, and fixing it is neither inexpensive nor easy; and b) the issue of warning employees applies to lots of non-fire emergencies. Such as an active shooter event.
  - notch656a 4y ago
    Well that sounds fucking painful. If you can swing the change there's lots of small private companies you can work at where getting authorization for a few thousand at a time is as easy as asking the CEO in a 5 second conversation (if that). I think I would last about 5 days with that kind of fuckery before self-imploding in anger and rage quitting. If you work somewhere where a thesis is required to fix a fucking broken fire alarm, I don't know what to say, that just isn't the right environment the thrive in.
    - GlenTheMachine 4y ago
      I know. But the trade off is that government is very well resourced. Applying those resources can be painful and slow, but once you get them in gear you can attack problems nobody else can touch.

notch656a 4y ago

Yeah I mean I don't work for the government so I guess it doesn't make sense to me. So what, they show up and it's fixed. What's gonna happen, is someone seriously going to get fired / prosecuted for fixing the fire alarm? I presume if no one is ratting you out for the repeater they're not going to rat you out for the fire alarm, and even if they do the consequences can't be worse for fixing a life-saving alarm vs a possibly frivelous repeater.

GlenTheMachine 4y ago
Probably not, but once you get high enough up in management, the pain issue really starts to become "how much paperwork will I be required to do?" And in the case of obviously spending money to do something that was someone else's job, the answer is "a surprisingly large amount." It's worth noting that a) this is a very complicated fire alarm, and fixing it is neither inexpensive nor easy; and b) the issue of warning employees applies to lots of non-fire emergencies. Such as an active shooter event.
- notch656a 4y ago
  Well that sounds fucking painful. If you can swing the change there's lots of small private companies you can work at where getting authorization for a few thousand at a time is as easy as asking the CEO in a 5 second conversation (if that). I think I would last about 5 days with that kind of fuckery before self-imploding in anger and rage quitting. If you work somewhere where a thesis is required to fix a fucking broken fire alarm, I don't know what to say, that just isn't the right environment the thrive in.
  - GlenTheMachine 4y ago
    I know. But the trade off is that government is very well resourced. Applying those resources can be painful and slow, but once you get them in gear you can attack problems nobody else can touch.