All systems down
The middle school had their fire inspection today. And while we are not technically part of the school we do inhabit their space. So we too, had a fire inspection today. Which we failed miserably. Not that I'm terribly surprised.
I am, however, irate about how the whole thing came to pass.
The only reason the costume shop knew about the inspection today was because the school's maintenance man, who has taken a fatherly liking to us, stopped by yesterday afternoon with the news. When asked what we should watch for while preparing he only mentioned clearing pathways and exits and dressing power cords. Done and done. The shop was actually cleaner than its been in several weeks. But no one our own staff felt the need to inform us of the inspection. Communication, yet again, failed. Had the maintenance man not forewarned us several more violations could have been present.
Having failed miserably not only in the costume shop but also in the main office, the school was understandably upset at the theatre. However, the school never made any effort to let us know what the fire regulations were. Likewise, the theatre never contacted the school tl make sure we were up to code.
The thing that floors me is, as result of the inspection, the costume shop is in a state of shut down. Our violation was the use of extension cords. We have three working outlets in the shop. This is a point I made very clear when I first starting work. A point which was repeatedly dismissed. These three outlets are not in the most convenient locations. And those who use sewing machine know how long of a cord is attached. We were striped of all power cords, effectively preventing us from powering any of our equipment.
I contacted our managing director, who had decided it was okay to NOT be present while the inspection was happening. Concerns, frustrations and temporary solutions were discussed. And we were moved into the Education Office for the time being.
I then contacted our production manager who not only should be kept in the loop, but quite honestly as production manager should have been certain we had been up to code the entire time. His dismissive attitude and finger pointing to the managing director put me over the edge. When I mentioned that we even had a fire inspection his first response was that he told the managing director that she shouldn't have bothered. To which I could only respond it was not her call...it was a mandatory inspection by the school which we failed miserably, and as production manager he was partly responsible for not maintaining the safety of the space.
The lack of communication and massive quantity of blame passing continues to boggle my mind. The theatre has been structure in such a way that no one feels responsible for any one task, no one is held truly responsible when things fall through and communication between departments is lax at best.
Thankfully, we are able to press forward for the moment.
And I have a job lined up elsewhere come May.
I am, however, irate about how the whole thing came to pass.
The only reason the costume shop knew about the inspection today was because the school's maintenance man, who has taken a fatherly liking to us, stopped by yesterday afternoon with the news. When asked what we should watch for while preparing he only mentioned clearing pathways and exits and dressing power cords. Done and done. The shop was actually cleaner than its been in several weeks. But no one our own staff felt the need to inform us of the inspection. Communication, yet again, failed. Had the maintenance man not forewarned us several more violations could have been present.
Having failed miserably not only in the costume shop but also in the main office, the school was understandably upset at the theatre. However, the school never made any effort to let us know what the fire regulations were. Likewise, the theatre never contacted the school tl make sure we were up to code.
The thing that floors me is, as result of the inspection, the costume shop is in a state of shut down. Our violation was the use of extension cords. We have three working outlets in the shop. This is a point I made very clear when I first starting work. A point which was repeatedly dismissed. These three outlets are not in the most convenient locations. And those who use sewing machine know how long of a cord is attached. We were striped of all power cords, effectively preventing us from powering any of our equipment.
I contacted our managing director, who had decided it was okay to NOT be present while the inspection was happening. Concerns, frustrations and temporary solutions were discussed. And we were moved into the Education Office for the time being.
I then contacted our production manager who not only should be kept in the loop, but quite honestly as production manager should have been certain we had been up to code the entire time. His dismissive attitude and finger pointing to the managing director put me over the edge. When I mentioned that we even had a fire inspection his first response was that he told the managing director that she shouldn't have bothered. To which I could only respond it was not her call...it was a mandatory inspection by the school which we failed miserably, and as production manager he was partly responsible for not maintaining the safety of the space.
The lack of communication and massive quantity of blame passing continues to boggle my mind. The theatre has been structure in such a way that no one feels responsible for any one task, no one is held truly responsible when things fall through and communication between departments is lax at best.
Thankfully, we are able to press forward for the moment.
And I have a job lined up elsewhere come May.
posted by Unknown at
6:24 PM
3 Comments:
I would have thought the city or county was responsible for the fire inspection and not the school, and it would have been the theatre's responsibility to make sure the shop was aware of the code and not the school's. Are fire inspections (like fires) supposed to be a surprise or is there usually warning that there's an inspection? This issue is particularly interesting to me since my brother was made homeless in an apartment fire last April that destroyed 70 people's apartments - and due to the random "dead" wires sticking out of the wall in my apartment I'm pretty sure there is no fire code in Romania. Concrete doesn't burn, right?
Come again? That last line??
Yes we need to know more-soon.
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