Friday, May 02, 2008

Tagged

We’re officially tagged like dogs. We used to come and go to & fro the office as we like but I guess we’ve got to be more careful now.


It all started with a few thefts in the office. A pen or a stapler would go missing. Then it was perfume bottles and ipod adaptors. The management then thought the best way was to monitor all our comings and going and they changed the pin code door system to a tag / swap card / swipe card / access. I don’t know what it’s called but we all hate it. We now have the hang the damn thing around our necks ‘cos we do move from one office to another quite a bit within one day and have to beep in and out all the time. Leaving it on our desks means we’ll walk to the door only to find we can’t exit, walk back to our desk to retrieve the card and back to the door. Sometimes we’re carrying files and other items so it’s really bothersome.


And it’s really ugly too! We weren’t given a nice sleek black lanyard which has the stylish Saatchi logo on it. Management says they are cutting costs. Instead it was just a hard piece of generic dark blue lanyard. So most of us went out and got some fun, funky and fresh lanyards. And even some cutesy item, added on to make the tag look less like a dog tag. It’s nice to look down and see something cute looking back at you rather than an ugly flat white card on ugly dark blue lanyard.




We occupy one floor but there are 2 offices separated by a lift lobby. One is where the Creative and IT sits. And the other is for Account Management and Finance. So when you come out of the lift, you can choose to either turn left or right (depending on which lift u come out at) into the Creative or Account Management office. But if u are going from one office to another, you have to beep out of Account Management, close the door behind you, walk across the lift lobby then beep into the Creative office.


I once did that as I needed to send some job requisitions over to Traffic in the Creative but when I was beeping into the system at the Creative office door, the damn card won’t work! I ran back to the Account Management door and beeped in there but rather than the high pitched ‘Biiiiiiiiiiip’, I just got a low sounding ‘pooooooth’. I then ran back to Creative and I got another ‘pooooooth’. Then back to Account Management again. Yet another ‘pooooooth’. I didn’t have my mobile with me ‘cos I was carrying the damn job requisitions. I didn’t even have cigarettes with me or I could have smoked and waited for someone to either come in or out so that I could get in to Creative.


Finally someone came out and I ran in.


It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Just imagine being locked out of both offices when you’re the only one left in the entire floor. No mobile, no car keys. I just hope that that’s not going to be me.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to swipe land. My company has this security feature as well. Worse, they've made it such that we only have access to our own departments and some general use areas.What people in management don't realise when they implement this, is that we're locking ourselves in just as much we keeping others out.

Bubbles said...

Oh... so it's called a swipe card? People where are calling it the swap card. Hahaha. Someone must've heard wrongly and it just stuck. I'm just calling it a dog tag which lets me "biiiiiiip" in and out.

I totally agree that we're locking ourselves in. But what's worst is locking ourselves in between. That's gotta be scary.

As with everything else, it takes a disaster to make people change systems which they adamant works best.

Ally said...

My lanyard has the word POLICE along it. Hehehe. I've worn my lanyard for 8 years...

Bubbles said...

Really? Did u steal it from an actual policeman? That would be cool!