Tuesday 11 November 2008

Non-observance

I once calculated that over a 15 year period, I worked in 20 different buildings in the Sydney CBD or North Sydney. I have no idea how many different buildings I have spent Remberance Day in, but I guess it would be 10. In some cases, I was working for private enterprise; in others, for government.

Today was spent in a private building out in the sticks. It was the first time in 15 years that I can think of where the building did not stop at 11:11hrs for a minutes silence. I doubt anyone even knew it was Rememberance Day.

In previous years, we'd usually get an email in the morning to remind us of the importance of the day, along with a request that all work cease at 11:11, and that silence be observed. At the appointed minute, the building manager would get on the PA system, and a formal announcement would be made to every nook and cranny of the building.

Some idiots would of course ignore the announcement - they'd continue prattling away on the telephone until something large and heavy would sail through the air in their direction. Wherever I was at that time, you'd hear the whole building come to a stop. The only sound would be that of the air conditioning thrumming away, or the occasional "ping" of an email arriving. On the whole, everyone respected it, regardless of their personal feelings.

Today was a bit of a shock, because I was in a meeting, and was expecting an announcement to be made blah-blah-blah, and when I looked up, it was 11:30am. We'd sailed right through without a pause.

I'm not going to make the mistake of assuming anything in the future.

2 comments:

Richard Sharpe said...

It could have been worse BOAB, you could have had to endure the spanker at the service I went to today.

kae said...

I turned up the radio for the last post... as I looked at the clock and saw it was 11am.

Pointless, several nongs came in and interrupted my roomie and I in our silence.

Word Ver: antabike (appropriate for BOAB!)