Whiteboard Jungle: Is This Another Drill?

So, yes, there was an earthquake here in Southern California yesterday.

I was at work. Coincidentally enough, our building had had its annual fire drill that morning. We knew it was coming, as they had passed out notices the day before. While we were all standing around in the hot sun, the fire officer told us to be sure to get the studio's earthquake safety handout from our floor wardens. By the time I got to my floor warden, I saw someone else grab the last one he had from his hands. And my name wasn't even on his checklist. I could pass out from smoke in my cube and no one would come to look for me. I've only been here 14 months. Geez.

Then, per standard organizational planning here, no one was around to turn on the building's elevators after the drill. Genius. I was just going to stand around waiting on principle, because if they can't plan ahead... Then one of my co-workers started mocking me, that I couldn't climb all the way up to the 5th floor. We're not talking about Mr Fitness here, either. I knew if I didn't do it, he would just Not Shut Up. The biggest problem with the stairs in my building is that, to get to the stairwells on the first floor, you have to go through HR offices. Ok, I'm not saying the HR people are scary, but these are not the "we're here to make you happy" HR types, these are the legal "we're here to keep you from suing us" HR types.

Of course, I made it to the 5th floor first. Nyah.

Anyway, about an hour later, we were in our group meeting. Then things start moving.

Did I mention my floor warden was out of earthquake handouts when I found him?

I was sitting there thinking, wow, they didn't tell us this was earthquake drill day, too! You know, I work at a movie studio. It's conceivable that they might, um, be able to simulate... ok, never mind.