I just discovered that I am the Floor Warden for the new offices we moved to this year. This means I am responsible for making sure everyone gets out of our office safely in case of an incident. I had to go to a 2 hour long Floor Warden training recently and it was painfully dull. I was the first one to arrive, so I sat right up front as to not look odd for making my way all the way to the back of the empty room.
Let me tell you, 2 hours is way too long. They could have cut plenty of stuff out of this training. In fact, it could have been cut down to about 15 minutes if they just focused on what we all cared about, like: where our evacuation meeting point was, but instead they had to fill it with a whole lesson on how fire works and the history of earthquakes in the world.
The guy doing the training was a fireman, who included himself too much in his training stories and even peppered the Power Point presentation with photos of his kids and one of himself in uniform running toward a burning building. It felt a lot like school, because his method of training is to call on people in the room to answer the questions, which I HATE! I much prefer the opportunity to space out if I am not engaged in the lesson, but felt like I had to stay on my toes in order to not look foolish to my fellow Floor Wardens & colleagues.
In order to cover for not knowing the answers when he called on me, and to perhaps thwart him from calling on me again, I decided to play the role of the class clown.
Q: �What are some characteristics of a suspicious package?�
A: �Um�if it is ticking?�
Q: �What happens if you evacuate down 4 flights and the alarm is still ringing?�
A: �Um...go home?�
The one pertinent piece of information I learned that I would like to impart upon the ladies, is be sure to have an extra pair of comfortable shoes stashed in your office or bag. He said that was the number one thing people wished they had on 9/11. Can you imagine walking home through the rubble in 3 inch heals? OUCH.
Anyway, I am sure everyone in my office feels safe to have me as their Floor Warden. I might even read the manual.