bad design

[cellio]

I discovered today that our office has a race condition.

The doors from our space to the hall are connected to an alarm system. To enter through one of those doors you have to swipe a card and enter a code; to leave through one of those doors you have to push a button, which (we were told) disables the alarm for 60 seconds. 60 seconds ought to be long enough for anyone to walk the 10 feet to the door and get out, so I've been puzzled by the frequency with which the alarm goes off. We're all smart people -- are we really that bad about remembering to hit the button?

This afternoon I hit the button, saw the indicator light that said I'd connected, opened the door -- and set off the alarm. That's when I learned that closing a door resets the alarm; it's not really a 60-second window. So if I hit the button while the other door is open, and that door is closed before I walk over and open my door, the alarm goes off.

Bugger. While I don't sit right next to the alarm like some of my unfortunate coworkers, I sit close enough to hear it when it goes off. (That sucker is loud.) And I'm told there's nothing we can do about this problem. This seems like poor design; while it would come up only rarely in, say, your house with a handful of occupants, with close to 100 people and the restrooms and smoking area on the other side of those doors, there's a lot of traffic.

(Of course, we could address the problem informally, rather than with the alarm company -- but we have to be motivated. A door-cam would do it, but I don't care that much.)

Comments

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

That's a serious problem -- it leads to people disabling the alarm, which is contrary to intent and a security risk. Is there a physical security person you can discuss this with?

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

We have a physical security person. He's the one able to explain how corporate politics caused the alarm system to be total crap, and that there's nothing we can really do about it.

The alarm was previously disabled, a state with which everyone local was happy. Then the overlords came to audit us, and we had to turn it on.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

ARGH. I forgot about the stupidity factor. Forgive me.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

And here I was going to say "Diagonal Wire Cutters Are Your Friend".

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

That's very true -- but given the policies they've already had handed down, might be good for "disciplinary actions up to and including termination." I'm nervous about encouraging people to go around them.

It's always better for security systems to help people comply and also meet the goal of protecting physical and intellectual assets, rather than pissing off the employees into subverting, disabling, or going around the systems and leaving a risk.

My philosophy, clearly not echoed here, is that if a security system is a bugger to deal with, it's not right -- if there isn't a technology sufficient to meet the need, then the security system shouldn't make rules they can't enforce. If it's that critical to have that door guarded, and they can't do that without an alarm going off frequently and loudly enough to disturb, annoy, and lower the productivity of the people in the area, then put an effing human being there.

This is bad policy, bad security, and bad relationships with an acquisition. As Duncan would say, "It sucks."

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, utterly. But the level of Catch-22 and the seeming disregard for the individual under the new administration - it is appalling.

So, dike-cutters, and don't tell anyone it was you. :-)

[madfilkentist]

A very bad idea, after having this discussion in public. If any of the Overlords are aware of this LJ, she'd be near the head of the list of suspects.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized after writing my comment that this isn't friend-locked. But I left it anyway. Perhaps if they are LJ-aware, they'll get some clues!

[cellio]

It's ok. I am a better person than corporate policy says I am (which isn't hard). They presume employees are malicious; I don't know anyone among my coworkers for whom that's even faintly true. I certainly have no intentions of vandalizing the alarm; even the people who sit right next to it aren't doing so.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Unless they choose to blame me. (Besides, since the conversation was public, who knows who read it and acted upon it?)

[cellio]

If it's that critical to have that door guarded, and they can't do that without an alarm going off frequently and loudly enough to disturb, annoy, and lower the productivity of the people in the area, then put an effing human being there.

I'll bet wiring the two doors separately (two alarms instead of one) would be cheaper. Probably easier than tying two doors to one alarm was, for that matter.

change

[benzado.livejournal.com]

How did you find out that it was wired this way? Does Andy know? We've already had them rewire the button to put a feedback light on it; are you certain they can't fix this?

Re: change

[cellio]

Andy is the one who told me how it works and that it can't be changed.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

If the alarm goes off often enough, and is loud enough, the noise may be breaking an OSHA or state workplace regulation.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=9735&p_table=STANDARDS
might be one place to start reading.

It would probably be a lot cheaper for your overlords to rewire the doors to work properly than to provide earplugs and regular hearing tests for the people who sit right next to the alarms. :-)

You should also point out that because of the regular false alarms, everyone has become accustomed to ignoring the alarms. ("false alarm immunity")

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Excellent point.

[jducoeur]

I discovered today that our office has a race condition.

Y'know, coming from almost anyone else, I would have expected this note to be about an equal-opportunity-employment complaint. (My mother works in the legal department of a big company, so I hear about a fair number of these.)

But yes -- idiotic design. I can't stand people who design security policies who don't actually understand security...

[cellio]

Y'know, coming from almost anyone else, I would have expected this note to be about an equal-opportunity-employment complaint.

:-) Yeah, it was a little geeky, but it's a precise and concise description of the nature of the problem.

I'm reminded of the time a coworker commented that he'd seen a bus crash -- by which he didn't mean "mass of twisted metal" but, rather, that the automated doors (or maybe it was the programmed signs) were having problems and had to be rebooted. I seem to remember the driver turning the bus off and back on again to fix the problem.