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I really am sympathetic to the security angle. I would think that with some planning and picking the right hardware, a happy medium could be reached between security and safety. As I said, maybe there are features to your (to Tom L's) setup that you're not aware of so it's best to ask someone who should know.

It just makes me unsettled to think that your only escape from your entire floor is through these locked doors, and the locks have failed in the past such that you feel the need keep prying tools at your desk "just in case". It just seems like a bad situation waiting to happen.


It may sound weird, but that's how it is in my case at least. The stairwell (the only stairwell in the entire building accessible from the top floor where I work) is locked all the time. There are no push bars nor any other way out of the building except climbing. There are two possible routes of evacuation from the stairwell, one short and another much longer one. Either way there are two doors with magnetic locks.

I don't know exactly how the electronic locks work. I doubt anybody around here does, though. We've had a malfunction the other day and it took several days to fix it.

I guess that's just the way it is if you work in an old building (well over 100 years). On the other hand, the doors themselves are old as well and seem fairly flimsy. So in an emergency I don't think it would be that difficult to pry them open, supposing you have anything suitable at hand. There are also thick, heavy fire protection doors but these have no locks fortunately.

Anyway, I do feel a lot better now with a tire iron in my pack - keeping my fingers crossed that I'll never have to use it for real. wink