Just another day at work really . . .

So, in the past, every time I've worked late, I've had the security guards hovering around, wanting to know when they can lock the building. This time, there's a new crew on: they don't know me, and I don't know them. I'm moving from one part of the building to another when I encounter a guard, trying to lock up. "Oh, I'll be awhile yet," I say.

"What time will you finish?"

I give him an estimate.

"No worries. We'll lock the door now, and you just let us know when you're actually leaving, and push the button to get out."

"Yep, no problems. I've done that before."

The appointed time comes, and I haven't quite finished, but I figure I'll leave the rest for the morning. I speak to the guards; they're happy. I go to the door and look for the red push button I'm used to, but it's gone. There are four things now -- a white knob with three blue lights and a twin outside the door, a flat plastic panel that looks like a light switch without a switch, a keypad, and a pad that says "Emergency Exit. Break glass and press here to get out".

So I play with the white thing with blue lights. I push it. I pull it. I wave my hand over it. Nothing.

I try the flat white panel. Nothing.

I look at the keypad. I have no idea what it's for, or what to key in.

I look at the Emergency Exit thing. I can't see any glass. Sounds a bit over-the-top, so I go back to the first one again, and then the flat panel. Nothing.

Hmm, Emergency Exit. It's not quite an emergency. I can just grab a security guard if I wait for a couple of minutes. But I can't see any glass either. Maybe it's already been broken, and this is just the normal exit mechanism.

Tentatively, oh so tentatively, I press where the instructions say to push. Nothing. So I push harder. Snap. The glass under the surface breaks and the doors open. Only they don't shut again. Clearly they are open so everyone (i.e. me) can evacuate the building to get away from whatever the emergency is. Oh, no. I figure that somewhere, either on the grounds or off, an alarm bell is wailing. A klaxon, perhaps, is blaring.

So I have to wait for the security guys and fess up. I predict they'll be peed, but they're not. Or at least they don't appear to be. They're good about it, but chances are they don't know how to "fix" it anyway. Yes, I'm the most popular gal around at the moment! Why do these things happen to me?