Fire drill: Difference between revisions

Fire drill (view source)

Revision as of 17:15, 7 January 2021

1,159 bytes added , 7 January 2021

no edit summary

Amwelladmin

Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Administrators

82,927

edits

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 . ''Office [[ennui]]'' (''archaic, falling out of use the “new normal”''): An ''actual'' fire drill: the Friday afternoon clarion call over the Tannoys that declares all is well with the world — even the building’s fire alarms are working — and it is time for yon wildebeest to start their slow stampede for the exits.
-This kind of [[fire drill]] is, of course, usually followed by a [[fire drill]] in the first sense, meaning that despite all indications to the contrary your weekend is wrecked after all, and almost certainly on account of a damp squib.
+Fire drills of this kind are a fun interruption to an [[all-hands conference call]] — especially one that is getting a bit tasty — as they function like a cold shower where everyone has to pause, fuming, for about four minutes while Patricia Hodge (or someone sounding remarkably like her) goes through her pre-recorded motions; intoning first that this ''is'' a drill, and you should all ignore what is about to happen and get on with your work; then that this ''isn’t'' a drill — the building is on fire, you must immediately leave without using the elevator or collecting your belongings; and then a reminder that what just happened ''was'' a drill, you were right to ignore it, but it is ''stopping'' being a drill now, so from now on you ''do'' have to pay attention, until the next time you are told don’t have to.
+There is a story, passed now into folklore, that an [[In-house lawyer|in-house legal eagle]] at JPM and her favourite lawyer at [[Linklaters]] would frequently have conversations so long that they would span both the JPMorgan fire drill, at 1030 in the morning, and the Linklaters one, at four in the afternoon.
+In any case, this kind of [[fire drill]] is, of course, usually followed by a [[fire drill]] in the first sense, meaning that despite all indications to the contrary your weekend is wrecked after all, and almost certainly on account of a damp squib.
 [[Eheu]].