Not a Trend . . . Yet

Back in my Black Belt days, I spent a fair amount of time reminding people that two data points do not constitute a trend.  In case you’re wondering, you need six data points for that.  But, when you find yourself in the same incredibly rare situation more than once, it’s hard not to wonder if something bigger is going on.

Eight years ago I started a new job that happened to come with an office (at least for the first year).  One day shortly after I started I put a conference call on speaker, and closed my door so I wouldn’t disturb anyone.  When the call was over I walked over to open my door, but the door wouldn’t open.  Hoping this could be solved simply, I IM’d a coworker and asked him to come talk to me.  He tried to open the door from the outside and thought I was playing a joke on him.  He called building services for me and kept up a play by play over IM.  This was not terribly useful.  Case in point: about 30 seconds after I witnessed a ceiling tile mysteriously slide to the side and a pair of legs dangle from above, I received a message stating, “They’re coming in.”  My new office mate walked over to the door, flipped the lock, and seemed genuinely surprised when the door wouldn’t open.  Did he really believe I hadn’t tried that?  While I don’t remember how long it took to resolve, I do recall that it took two workers—one on the inside and one on the outside—and full removal of the door knob and lock, to open the door.

I was running about two minutes late yesterday morning, trying desperately to make up time.  When I finally made it to my door, the handle just spun.  I checked the locks, thinking maybe I’d missed something.  But no, it wasn’t the lock, and the door wouldn’t budge.  I immediately called downstairs, explained my situation, and waited for a porter to come to my rescue.  A knock on the door came a few minutes later.  For what it’s worth, it’s very strange to have someone knock on your door and not be able to open it.  I slid a key out to him and he let himself in.  He quickly assessed the situation and called someone else.  It was less than twenty minutes from the time I attempted to leave until I finally made my exit, but they were a rather strange twenty minutes.  I may have checked that the doorknob was functioning a handful of times yesterday afternoon.

The thing is, I’ve never met anyone else who has ever been locked inside.  I’ve never even met anyone who knows anyone else who has been locked in.  And now it’s happened to me twice.  Here’s to hoping I don’t have four more of these waiting for me.