I used to work in a lasertag centre. Woefully outdated technology (our "Master System" ran on DOS 3-ish, we had a printer older than most of our customers), but we bodged and fixed and got along with it. That's not the story.

One day, we were low on staff so we 'borrowed' one of the grunts from Downstairs. Y'see, we were above an amusement arcade and so our downtime was spent down there, when we weren't cleaning, filing, sorting, repairing... and generally finding excuses to sit around doing bog all. With laser guns. However, this day the boss needed to do real work downstairs, so he summoned one of the grunts to deal with the fun stuff. Untrained, useless... what's the worst that could happen, right?

Turned out, this particular grunt was bored between games and liked to find things to press. Having been told NO TOUCHEE COMPUTEE and bored that the only video was the training movie, he cast his speculative eye further and found a mysterious red button under the desk.

"Ho!" said our brave soul, "Ho! For this may be the magic button which opens the door to Narnia!" and thumbed it mightily.

Nothing.

"Ho!" he repeated, "It must need a different finger!" and so poked it firmly.

Nothing!

"Ho!" he moaned, "Bastard button must be broke!" and so jabbed it a few times to be sure.

Footsteps on the spiral stairs! Finally, something happened!

Yes... half a dozen of England's Finest Police came swarming up the stairs, keen to know why the berk behind the desk was hammering on the panic button and expecting guns, bombs, possibly even Gargamel.

"Oh. That's what that button does!" beamed our hapless hero.
(Gonkers Mcfoo, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:58, 4 replies)

Shudder
I did this once. First day at Natwest as a cashier.
( rofl harris, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 16:13, closed)

So
the boss didn't tell him about the panic button. Not sure who's the stupid one.
( social hand grenade I was a lurker before you were a lurker, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 16:43, closed)

Most companies get a phone call
to confirm that this was not a mistake as it happens s often.
(Wagane, Sat 5 Mar 2011, 10:09, closed)

this.
And it'd be the alarm company that called, not old bill.


*banks could be different.
(Kip, Tue 8 Mar 2011, 12:48, closed)