rant - security at work gave me a lovely send off...

Fairly long, sorry, but had to get this out. Read at your own risk.

There are many other things I should be doing right now, sleeping the major one that comes to mind, but I feel I have to get this out. I staid late tonight at work as I was attempting to get more work done on my projects that I don't quite have finished. It rolled around to a little after 11 when I was starting to get hungry and I was getting hungry, so I decided to finish up at home. I realized I needed to clean out my desk quick, simple enough as I barely had anything there, and I was on my way. I not much more than walked out the main door that goes back into the office areas when I realized I did forget something, my fleece jacket that I kept there for when I was cold (one of the hazards of losing weight). Knowing no one was around, I decided I liked the jacket enough to call campus security to let me in the door as I had turned in my key that morning so that I wouldn't forget to later.

The dispatcher picked up, seemed nice enough, but kept asking what was the door number above the door. I should have taken a picture of this with my phone to prove it, but these are the main entrance doors to the offices, they don't have numbers! I told her this repeatedly and said that they are the doors that go back to the offices for these numbers and told her my cubicle number. She asked for my number and said she would call back. She called back and asked me if I had found the number yet! I repeated what I said before and she said someone was on their way.

I waited for about 5 minutes when I hear someone jogging to the closest outside door. He came up the stairs and asked if I was the one wanting in the door. I replied and then he asked if I had my badge, which I already had out and handed over. I made the joking comment that I knew I would do this when I turned my key in this morning and he immediately responded, "Why did you do that?" as if it was the stupidest thing I could have done. I said today was my last day and he asked for clarification on whether I meant Friday or Saturday Not seeing why it mattered or how he thought of Saturday first (he actually checked the time on his watch to see which was technically correct), I responded Friday. He then responded accusingly, "Why didn't they take your badge?", I said, "I don't know, they didn't ask for it." He looked like he was very hesitant to even let me in the door, like this was all some sort of scheme that I was cooking up and he was going to catch me in, but he couldn't refute the badge.

He unlocked the door and I walked back to my desk while followed and asked questions like, "who do you work for..." and I responded accordingly. I grabbed my fleece out of its drawer and then looked through all the other cabinets quick to see if I had missed anything else, though I knew I didn't. I had mentioned by this point that I was now technically a volunteer (which I only found out yesterday there was actually a term and paperwork for that), but the paperwork hadn't been filled out yet (professor I work for fault, not mine) and he had grilled me on that. He also asked how I got in here in the first place; I just gave him a stupid look and replied, "I've been here." His response was, "oh, you came here before 6." (I was actually there since probably 10 a.m., but who's counting?) We got back to the front doors and he said that he would have to call in to check on my status. While we were waiting he asked to see my fleece. He started scrunching and searching it and said, "Don't be offended, other employees have tried to smuggle things out before when they left." I didn't say anything, but here are some of my thoughts:

Don't be offended! How stupid do think I am? Why would I call security to let me back in a door at 11:15 p.m. and then try to smuggle something out in a fleece jacket? What of any value would I smuggle out in a fleece jacket? You saw me just yank it out of the drawer, which means I would have had to have put something in it, put it back in the drawer, and then forget about it! Are you going to check the obvious smuggling place, the fairly large backpack on my back? No...

Yes, I did have time to think all of that and then some as he thoroughly searched my fleece, inside and out, top to bottom, a good three times. Satisfied, he handed it back to me. He then made the obvious observation that my badge still said "employee" on it and he said that he would have to take it and then they would give me a volunteer badge. After he got off the radio with dispatch, he reaffirmed this and said I could get one Monday. I told him I would be in Indiana on Monday, which he replied, "Well, when you get back." I said, "No, I'm moving to Indiana." His response was, "But you said you were going to be a volunteer." and I said, "Yes, over the internet." Stumped, he said, "then I'll just take this." I just walked out the door and started down the stairs.

It didn't take me long to realize that he was following me down said stairs. I was up on the third floor and I was making my way to the first floor so that I could go out the closest door to my car. When I got on the last flight he said, "You leaving the building?" I replied, "Yup." and hit the door fairly forcefully as I exited.



Yes, it's probably a security thing for only employees to have badges. I was thinking it would be nice to have it as a momento (though I don't really care about momentos), but I didn't get the choice as it didn't actually work for anything (I had told him this). What do you guys think, am I over reacting? Of course, you are only getting my point of view, but I still tried to be fairly accurate, with a little of my own commentary, of course.