Nearly got trapped at a call center in Detroit when the fire alarm went off
I was stuck at my desk at Premier Solutions in Detroit last Tuesday, taking my 47th call of the day about a billing error, when the fire alarm started blaring. My supervisor yelled over the intercom that it was a drill and nobody should move, so we all just sat there for 12 minutes while the alarm screamed. Turns out it was a real small fire in the break room, but they didn't want us to lose productivity time. I got up and walked out anyway, and three other people followed me. When I came back, my shift manager wrote me up for unauthorized break and docked my pay for 15 minutes. Has anyone else had a job where they expected you to ignore safety stuff just to meet call quotas?
Used to be one of those guys who thought safety drills were just time wasters. Figured if a company said it was a drill, it was no big deal and we should just follow orders. But reading this made me realize how messed up that thinking is. A fire is a fire, whether it's a drill or not, and nobody should be forced to stay put if they feel unsafe. Your supervisors put their call quotas over your wellbeing and that's just wrong. I wouldn't have blamed you if you walked out and kept on going.