Being the "Go To" person in the office?

Every office has its "go to" person for a knife, a tool or needle and thread. Part of the preparedness philosophy is that you can solve minor problems/inconveniences in a matter of moments. This tends to make you the "go to" person. I'm very hesitant to become this person. I'm still of the philosophy that it's not wise to let everyone know what I'm carrying. In a true crisis or emergency I would certainly be there to help and would not hesitate to pull out my fist aid kit. But for day-to-day needs I'm a little shy about using my SAK classic in public view. I'm just not so sure it's a wise thing to let people know how prepared you are until you need to. I’m not thinking in terms of being selfish just in terms of not having your emergency gear when you need it. If for instance you are constantly lending your knife to everyone or using your med supplies for everyone with a headache or a paper cut you can’t guarantee it to be their when you really need it.

I'm curious if others share my feelings.

Most offices have a Office First Aid kit that contains the basic bandaid / aspirin stuff so you shouldn't need to use your own such supplies regularly even for your own needs when at the office. Homes are usually likewise supplied. In terms of FAK supplies the only thing that I really bring to the table at the office is knowledge on how and when to use these items and an awareness of what is on hand and where it is. If it isn't supplied where you work you should remind the employeer of the appropriate OSHA requirements and suggest that they get a reasonable FAK.

I am an EMT-B so I also have a jump kit for duty use that contains some items not usually found in the office FAK like gloves, cpr mask, airways, splints, Stethescope, BP cuff, etc... that require some skill to make them useful. I won't be lending them out but if need be I will - and have - put them to use. Same goes for my other EDC tools. If someone needs a knife I will gladly cut open whatever package / box that they need opened. If someone needs a flashlight I will gladly shine some light into the dark corner under the desk while they use both hands to fix the errant PC or fishout the network cable from under the cube wall. If they need a screw-driver or similar I will stand by as they use it and retrieve it when they are done. If they put it down I pick it up. This way I get to be very helpful and the tools never leave my sight. I have had my tools damaged on occasion but usually, since I am standing there when they damage it, they look sheepish and volunteer to replace it. I gladly take them up on the offer and when they bring in the replacement I give them the damaged tool. For example, once a coworker borrowed my leatherman wave to "fix" a noisy fan in a power supply. When he grabbed a live wire with the pliers there was a loud arc and some of the tip of the jaws of the leatherman was vaporized. He got quite a jolt as well. After tending to his medical condition - only scorched his fingers no cross-body current but I took a full set of vitals and helped him calm down. He offered to replace the damaged wave. A week later the new wave arrived and when I gave him the damaged one he was surprised and pleased to have such a useful tool with only minor damage. He has carried it since.

the people in my office know I have everything I need just in case. They just roll their eyes and crack jokes, but I am the one they come to for little things. But then again, being a Marine, most everyone has a multitool and knife on them so its the small things they never think about that I have, like cray glue, or electrical tape, etc.

I dont mind, but I never lend my good stuff (swisstool and spyderco millie) out.

Garrett

So far most people who came to me for help also needed my skills to solve their problem. So my tools didn´t leave my hands. My coworkers stopped making jokes or giving me funny looks for being prepared. Giving a helping hand helps to build the proper reputation for preparedness.
A good office should have basic first aid supplies. It´s a good thing to watch over that supply to make sure that items are replaced and changed in time. When you volunteer to care for it, you make sure that you don´t have to invade your kit and you earn points for good social behaviour.
Preparedness extends to your environment. When you are the "go to person", you may even aquire the power to increase the supply of equipment in your office.

I'm in small office at the most we have 6 people in here at one time. The only first aid kit we have is a box of crappy band-aids in the closet. Last week I cut my knucles open on a picture frame in the hall that has exposed glass edges. When I cam in with blood dripping from hands very little was said. I explained what happened and again not much was said. I remarked about the lack of a first aid kit and again not much was said. So I grabbed my briefcase and went into the bathroom and took care of the problem with my personal FAK. I guess this is more of an issue about trying to get the office up to some minimum prepardness standard. A first aid kit would go a long ways from an emergency stand-point.

I've also heard of people carrying 2 knives one to lone and the other keep. But I like your idea of watching them use it and take it back immediately.

Your point is well taken. And it leads me to ask for advice on how to bring an office up to some minimal standard of preparedness. And what items would you want to have.

Off the top of my head I think the following would be a start:
A first aid kit
A flashlight
A small tool kit
A battery powered radio

What else would you add?

You've got two issues mixed here.

1) level of office preparedness

2) others using your tools

1) I would suggest that by taking the initiative to locate, price and suggest a basic office kit that won't break the bank for your small company you may get some points for initiative at-least. Do this in a helpful rather than resentful manner and it may be well received. Then follow up by stocking your personal FAK as needed and reasonable with a bit of extra. Keep track of what of yours gets consumed and ask to expense it just as you would a legal pad or mechanical pencil. Stay reasonable and helpful. Always help with a smile and a cheerful attitude. They may eventually recognize the need to re-imburse you for your supplies at which point you can offer to let it go if they will take on the collective duty to maintain an office FAK. (yes, I am suggesting that you invest - time, money, attitude - into your office community. I think it will pay off.)

2) Don't let others use your tools unsupervised and if you can do the work for them rather than loan the tool. They will recognize and appreciate your help and come to value and depend upon you. Best part of this approach is that they thank you for helping rather than raz you for having a Geek-Load of thingys. Oh yea, you get to protect your tools from bad handling since you are the one handling them.

What is the building type? Industry? location? Building age? Number of persons? Surrounding industry? Surrounding buildings? Handicap access? Handicapped residents? Level of training on hand? EMT? HazMat? Fire Suppression???????

The correct level of preparedness for a factory is vastly different than that for a bio-tech lab wich is different than that needed for a single story office building with software geeks within which is different than that needed for a High-rise office with a Data-Center housing a Mainframe and other Electronics posing a fire hazard.........

It's easy to say you need

1) FAK
2) ToolBox
3) Flashlight

but if you are in an old building with "historic" fire systems you might want a large Fire Extinguisher on the wall at every corner. If you are in a building that also houses some industry dealing with bio - chem hazmat stuff you might want to look into modifications to the ventilation systems to provide for positive pressure containment.

Provide some details and we can get this ball rolling! I'm sure that there a bunch of helpful suggestions just waiting to land once we know the target.

They are 2 separate issues that need to be addressed. One is the general office preparedness, which is rather poor. The other is being perceived as the office gadget geek. Having a few "office tools" would make it easy for someone to go get the "office flashlight" from the "office toolbox". But I think the first aid kit is a must. I’ll have to work on that one.

Even if I can only get a first aid kit for the office, I think your style of helping while your tools are being used is a fantastic idea. You can actually supervise but not do the work.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yeah I knew that would be like opening a can of worms <img src="images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

I'm in a three-story wood and masonry building, which is about a hundred years old and was renovated about ten years ago. We are on the second floor. The building has a fire alarm system and fire extinguishers on each floor but not building wide suppression system. The third floor an apartment. The ground floor is a picture gallery and barbershop. We have two stairs in a separate corridor. The building is located in the center of a small town. Our building is a typical building on the main street. We have masonry party walls separating us from the adjoining buildings. One of those building happens to be a hardware store, it burned to the ground about ten years ago and was rebuilt, it has a fire suppression system (our building was damaged after the fire and thus the renovation). The building has no handicap access or handicap occupants.

I would say I have the most first aid training. I've taken many basic first aid classes for the various activates I'm involved with. They are basic first aid but do include CPR training every two years.

I should have thought a little more about that list. Yeah it was lame but I'm starting from scratch here so please any help would be great.

Being the only teacher at school with major amounts of tools, I am the one they come to rather than the maintenance man, It only takes me a couple of weeks to build something rather than 3-4 months. I don't loan out my personal tools, but out of the shop. I keep my own flashlights, 2 way radios, FAK, cord/rope, etc.where we can get to them if need be.

Ah...learn to live with it. Being the "Go-To" guy with the knife is not such a bad thing.
I'm the "equipped" guy at family and freind events - and I revel in it!
True story:
We had a picnic for an organization to which my wife belongs this past summer. We needed to hang a sign near the parking lot. I had some rope to hand between trees.
At the picnic, a kid fell - hard - on his head. I had the instant ice-pack in my backpack.
The kids wanted to play Tug-Of-War, I had 100' of Rope in the car.
Well, by now, I'm the "go-to" guy for the event, and as the picnic started to get rained on, people looked to me for a suggestions - and of course, we rigged up a tarp and canopy out of some tree branches and a nylon tarp I keep in my bag in the car.
Now I'm known as the gadget guy, and that's a good thing for me and my freinds. I enjoy it and so do they.

I hold the same distinction in my office. We are in a two story building, second floor, not too large, lots of glass windows. During one of our famous rolling blackouts here in So Cal, we lost our power. All lights, computers, etc were out, but we did not know how long it would last. No problem, all the offices had windows, plenty of light. I might add, no emergency lighting was needed due to the building design(?).
But, I became very popular for the flashlight in my desk as well as those I brought in from my car when people started to realize that the bathrooms had no windows and absolutley no light.

I had the last laugh.

here in the lab that i work in, i have a small knife that is always clipped to the pocket of my lab coat, most people who have had want of a knife in the past know that thats its permant location. and that they can borrow it if they like, they normally ask first though which is nice, appart from that i don't lend my stuff out, i ususally go with them sort out the broblem and then go back to what i was doing. that way if anything gets broken, its my fault and i'm not going to have problems with the peoplei work with. allthough it would be nice if they went and asked someone else for a change!!
steve

well as i student i'm the go-to person at school. Ranging from a pen to ducttape, and even once a teacher borowed a p-38 from me, he didn't get the can open, though... amateurs i tell ya <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> he end up using the big stuff...

General office environment preparedness

FAK
A good bandaids & aspirin FAK for a small office shouldn't cost more than $300. Keeping it stocked might cost around $30 / month. You will be replacing antacids and aspirin way more than bandages. An advanced FAK isn't indicated unless you have some CPR trained folks and they are designated by and known to the entire office as the GO-TO medic. That title should come with perks if not pay. The advanced FAK might add cpr mask, Ambu-Bag, BP Cuff, Stethescope, AED, Oxygen and trauma bandages. The most likely use of the advanced FAK in the environment you describe would be for heart attack.

FIRE
You might want to supply yourself if not everyone with evac-u8 hoods. Fire would seem the most probable large-scale event you would want to prepare for. If there are openable windows (often there are in older buildings) you might think of storing escape ladders near the openable windows. You are only on the second floor and that would provide extra evacuation routes if the stairs are blocked by fire or smoke. These are fairly cheap insurance ~ $50 each.

Power Outage
Some of those plug-in emergency lights that store in the plug socket and light up when they aren't getting any power from the plug are cheap and very useful. If there is no emergency lighting already installed then these would be a decent item to place in each hallway or office for ~$20 per. Recommending flashlights to the residents is a waste of air. Often promotional gadget vendors will offer samples in the effort to get you to get something imprinted for mass mailing. There are cheap led keychain lights available throught that approach. If you had one for each employee they might put them on their keychain or they may throw them in their desk drawer - eitherway they might have one when the need it at work.
If you have battery backed UPS's for your PC's then someone needs to take the duty of checking the batteries once a month. If this isn't being done you probably don't really have UPS backup power but rather a large heavy heater that will be useless when called upon.
Same person should be checking fuel condition and supply and genset maintenance if you have that sort of power backup installed. A genset needs to be run for a few hours each month to stay usable.

General Maintenance
If you don't have a building maintenance contract or crew then you have a communal responsability to change the lightbulbs and refill the TP roll. If this isn't being shared and no-one has been designated then you have a political problem not a tool problem. That being said, tools for these sort of responsibilities should be provided by the person responsible. If that person is in the employe of the firm then the appropriate tools should be provided to them as needed.

PC Admin - maintenance.
See general Maintenance - same thing just different skills and tools.

Shelter
If there is any possibility that your office may become your home for a short duration because of whatever event that makes getting home or being home untennable and evacuation to better digs impossible then your office needs sheltering supplies.
Water - 1 gallon per person per day minimum, Blankets, Fuel powered heaters - alpaca kerosene stove is a great alternative, sanitation without plumbing - honey buckets are a possibility as long as you have a place to dump them once a day, Food - think vending full vending machine with three or four slots mandatorily taken up with granola bars, and pop-tarts or other "complete meal" alternatives in the eternal food category.

Just some thoughts. Probably won't get the firm to spring for the whole she-bang but if you are decent at Powerpoint proposals and do a thorough job of researching supplies and prices and options you could pitch it to the big honcho in the corner office as a good thing to consider and maybe get a decent Office FAK at least. There is good stuff at the FEMA site and the ARC site to start your research. If you do make a presentation I would love to see the finished product.

Heck for that matter, If anyone here has made a pitch like this to their firm before I would love to see the presentation and supporting documentation.

It is both very funny and very sad that people truly don't realize that until the restroom door shuts behind them.

Like others here, I sort of go with the "sacrificial anode" concept. I always carry a Leatherman Micra in addition to a "serious" folder... if someone asks for a knife, I hand them the Micra, and they don't get exposed to anything that might "scare the horses". Similarly, I have an "office convenience kit" in my desk drawer with a small mirror, band-aids, dental floss, analgesics, sewing kit, Fixodent (loose crowns, bridges, especially temporaries), safety pins, Photon 2 (personally, I prefer the 3), nail clippers, plastic bags, etc. This has nothing to do with my PSK or the larger set of stuff in the car out in the lot. I only reveal the serious gear for serious situations.

Along those lines, I should mention that I have for years kept a Ka-Bar "Hobo Set" in my desk drawer. This is a velcro/nylon pouch containing an all-stainless folding knife/fork/spoon combo. The interesting thing about this set is that each utensil detaches so that it has it's own handle, and you can actually eat in a civilized manner... and, as a side benefit, you have, in the middle, a VERY flat, slender, very lightweight lockblade folder in a very innocuous-looking package and context.

>>It is both very funny and very sad that people truly don't realize that until the restroom door shuts behind them.<<

Habits are hard to break. After Isabel, with the power out, I couldn't walk into a dark room without reflexively flicking the light switch, even though I "knew" there was no point. I knew that was going to happen from previous experience, but what surprised me was how many (hundreds) of times I blithely walked off into dark areas of the house with no light source on my person. We had lamps, lanterns, flashlights, but I was so used to not having to think about it, that it was second nature... the only thing that cured it was putting a tiny LED flashlight in each front pocket, so when I strode off to locate something and found myself suddenly blind, I didn't have to double back, each and every time.

As I mentioned once before, the light-switch thing doesn't have much downside... but I caught the lady of my life reflexively putting food down the garbage disposal. Contemplate the implications of that with the power off for a week...

Great post Minime I'm still trying to digest it all but I thought I would add something to the setion on Fire. I'm an architect and came across this product a while back. It's a retractable ladder. They also sell some other interesting ladder devices.

http://www.jomy.com/jomy/page.html

I agree, but it is also an indication that the building owner (we are not the only company occupying the building) did not understand how that problem could exist.
Still no emergency lighting in the carsey!

I like it a lot!

Questions:
1) have you installed / designed for / recommended any of these to your architecture clients?

2) Can they be secured so that they don't provide burglars convenient access to your home and yet still provide good egress during fire?

As mentioned in a previous response, I am in an office on the second floor. Two additional items I have are a hammer and a good long piece (75') of climbing rope. Lots of kidding on this one.
My thought is a fire in or around the only stairway from the second floor would mean an exit from fixed, closed windows. The hammer to remove the glass, after donning the mil grade goggles for eye protection and leather gloves, and most everyone would be able to leave the building via the rope from the second floor.
Shortcoming is that many people know what is there and why, but I am probably the only that can properly apply them. I think we need a training lesson, no matter how many laughs I might get. Probably a good idea to mention this to building management as well.
Thanks for the prompt.

We did install one for a residence that had a thrid story. From what I remember the lever that opened the ladder was located at the top of the ladder. I would say it was buglar proof since you have to use the lever to open it which was located at the top of the ladder.

Here's a video I found on the website.
http://www.jomy.com/jomy/demo.html

Very good post.
So far I talked our admins (they also maintain our computer hardware) into getting a decent toolbox and some flashlights. I try the small steps approach. It´s fairly easy to get a few items at a time.
Many thing tend to suffer from being neglected. The FAK can be restocked in a medical station. The light bulbs are changed when the maintenance crew learns that they burned out. I think you catch my drift. I decided to try and care for the things I can influence.

I guess this is going to be my approach. I'll make a list of what is needed and then prioritize that list and start working on the procurement of each item. This should be fun, but I just don't think the office is going to spring for EVAC-U8 hoods for everyone. I also think it will be hard sell to get a FAK that cost more than $35 bucks. But you have to start somewhere and you can always upgrade as you go.

Depending upon local zoning laws/regs., many office and other buildings for commercial use are required to be inspected periodically by the Fire Marshal’s Office, who can both recommend and/or enforce Life-Safety Code. Without causing too much of a stir, you may want to contact either the Zoning and Planning Office and/or the Fire Marshal’s Office for guidance. Pete

Adam, we recently upgraded one of our FAKs in the office and I grabbed the old one; a wall mounted metal case with a pretty good supply of bandages, etc. I was going to dump it in a garage sale, but I would be happy to send it to you for free. It will give you something to start with.

Feel free to contact me, Sometimeskater@aol.com

Thanks Pete. I think I will first start with the building management to see what can be accomplished. If that does not work, I will follow your advice.
Thanks again.

If I guessing correctly the second floor should be around 25 feet from ground level. If you are expecting others to also use your rope as a means of egress, you many want to consider placing knots ever few feet, to allow those without gloves to more easily descend the rope. You may also want to have some means of padding the rope over the window sill. Pete

Yes.
Some ladies may have to be lowered; a bow'lin on a bite, etc.
The point is, if it is there and needed, it is better than nothing.
However, nothing will replace planning and proper use.

Thanks for your input.

One thing about being in a small town is that our Fire Marshall does come around once a year. He does a visual inspection of the premises and also checks the fire extinguishes and places a tag on them.

Although I still can’t understand why the 2 exit doors swing into the hall and not out to the street. I can’t believe they would have let that pass code.

I may take you up on that offer. I showed the office manger a few different models and I think she is going to buy one. But if she dosen't I'll contact you.

Thank you.

Many uniform rental services supply first aid kit service for a fee.On contract they provide a first aid kit and regularly resupply them.The kits are usually a wall mounted box affair.They also replace expired shelf life items.The kits in the shop I work in are rather comprehensive suprisingly.Just look in the yellow pages for uniform service/rental.

Your list:
- A first aid kit
- A flashlight
- A small tool kit
- A battery powered radio

My adds:
- One of those "Battery Boxes" - the Jump Starter thingy - with a built-in inverter, keeps a cell phone charged and a light on in a blackout.
- An analog phone - again for blackouts. Sometimes a fax machine has a built-in analog phone.

You may want to consider blankets if your area ever gets serious winter weather that might cause an overnight.

I assume you have water and food on site too.