I would have done the same dang thing. Fire alarms can (and should!) be tested in "off" hours. Every person in that office lost two hours of productivity ($$$$!) and were going to lose more until the situation was addressed. You acted in a way which benefited both your company's bottom line and your mental health. Technically, I think HR owes you a thank you.

(As an aside, I wonder how many complaints the facilities office received before your company-wide email went out...)

I know your coworkers wanted to do what you did, you were just the brave one. I am the first line of defense around here and need to be politically correct 99.9% of the time. And do. But when it doesn't go well, I just sic my boss on them. Those that suffer his wrath (because he knows I did what should've been done and it wasn't met with the correct response), never cross him again. He's a raging bulldog if the situation needs it. I like your style in so many ways M!

I love you guys. As a sub-clinical Aspberger's, I am everyone's canary.

The very first thing I thought about was the lost productivity. Sounds to me like a whole staff was subjected to this to make it easy on whomever was doing the testing, so they'd not have to work 'off hours'. Cutting off noses to spite faces.

Yes, I speak up and to whomever I feel needs to get the message. It's never made me particularly popular with my superiors, but it's saved their fannies more than once. But, you'll never hear a thank you for that. They never fired me, either. LOL.

I suppose fire drills and tests are especially important for urban situations and tall buildings. But, that doesn't mean they can't be done with some sense.

I would have done exactly as you did Mary. It shouldn't have been that big a deal to the manager and the human resources office and I think they overreacted in this case.

M, they were lucky YOU were the canary.
I would have ripped it out with my bare hands.

I've been known to nail the door shut on a cuckoo clock
to keep the little twirp from mouthing off.

Oh dear, I'm odd man out here.

I would have gone to the third option -- not go through channels, but in person gone to find the boss of the person responsible for the cacophonious testing.

We take fire alarms seriously here, and testing for the sake of testing just isn't done during official work hours. However, we do have old-fashioned clomp-down-steps-and-gather-on-the-lawn fire drills on a near-monthly basis, during which time the alarms all perform with earsquealing whoops at 90 decibels until the fire dept comes to turn them off.... that means maybe twenty minutes of non-stop noise from first shriek to blessed silence.

Although, talking about disruptive noise, we do have a recurrent problem which is apparently unsolvable (and I'm not about to go to the cause's boss to complain in person). Occasionally, at unexpected instances and for unguessable periods ranging from a couple minutes several times an hour, to one unforgettable morning that near-deafened us for 3 (THREE) solid hours, the wind will hit one or more of the building's corners and shriek, howl, groan, rumble and/or roar. Think of a subway's rumble combined with a jet's takeoff going nonstop for 190 minutes. Now, *that* was a migraine morning.

I remember fire drills in Jr. high school in Iowa. We were in a three story brick building that was quite old and had a tube slide from the third floor for a fire escape. We would look forward to fire drills just to get out of class and use the fire escape. Some were brave enough to pull the handle on the alarm a few times and that resulted in removal of the slide and replacement with a regular fire escape. It was fun while it lasted.

Ya'll should have followed proper fire drill procedures and left the building and gone to a coffee shop or something.........not to return until said fire alarm was shut off and all was clear. No one could have faulted you if all in office had walked out.

Jan,
I needed that laugh, gal.
Boy, did I need that laugh.

I can see the little twirp bashing his little brains out as he is pecking with all his might on that nailed door.

Thanks!

I think I would have done what Linda J did. The fire alarm went off. I would have left the building & not come back until it wasn't ringing anymore. The people in authority would probably have gotten very upset about that too, but you'd have the right argument on your side.

Linda, LOLOL. That one is brilliant. Wish I'd thought of it. Still laughing out loud.

I agree..darn but the easy answers always come after the fact. LOL What a message that would have sent.