y'all. i have had the wildest fucking day at work.
we had a small fire that was contained, and it wasn't bad enough that they would call the local firefighters (volunteers), but it was enough that they evac'd the building. we were supposed to have a fire drill today, so at one point, the guy in charge of our location pulled up with ice cream for a reward from corporate for 90%+ completion of a survey and tried to walk inside with it.
we went back to work... for like, at most an hour.
tornado warning! shelter in your muster locations! except the power went out because our power grid sucks, and also our building has no cell signal. so we stayed there, where the emergency lights are, until we were 100% sure the inclement weather had ended. like an hour and a half total.
also me and one other person had cell signal in our corner of the room with our carrier, but no one else... until suddenly we didn't. judging by the ride home, I suspect a local cell tower got struck by lightning, damaged by winds or hail, or some other bullshit.
the ice cream is in the freezers. without power. we can't do anything without power. let's eat the ice cream before it melts ig. me and a group elect to sit at our little outdoor tables, where there is light.
we are told to stay because the power should come back on any minute. the people who installed our backup generators this year are being called. they are patiently explaining that we bought undersized ones for our needs so they wouldn't have us fully back anyways, and the back and forth power surges probably confused them. a tech will come soon. the techs came. nothing changed.
we are told if we leave before they call the day, it will be out of our PTO. "when will they call it?" we ask the guys in charge. "hey, we're paying you to sit here!" they respond. "if you need to, it would be great if you came in on the weekend or did overtime to help us stay on target." we stare back silently. he nods awkwardly and disappears back into the dark building.
4.75 hours after losing power, we are told that when it hits 5 hours we can just leave. at the five hour mark, we all abruptly stop talking, gather our shit, and walk out.
i have no cell signal on my drive home. i arrive to my apartment, which has had power for two hours, and sits less than a ten minute drive from my workplace.
what the hell has my day been.
