Some wingnut who hates the IRS called our building today and wasted an hour of time for about 500 government employees and a similar number of private-sector workers.
I work in an office building in downtown San Jose, the bottom half of which happens to be occupied by the IRS. I was on a call when the building fire alarms went off, and a cryptic message from our security guards was cut-off in mid sentence. I began prepping for evacuation (grabbed my shoulder bag) and told the person I was talking to I'd probably need to leave in a second. A few seconds later I started hearing sirens outside, and security came on and said 'Evacuate the building'.
That was enough to get me moving! If you work in an office tower, I highly recommend reading "102 Minutes", about the evacuation of the WTC which will get you mentally prepared to respond quickly; it got me moving fast.
Above, folks from the building congregate at Cesar Chavez time as a wingnut waste governement and corporate manhours.
Most of my office was in the stairwell within a few seconds, and congregated at Cesar Chavez park. My entire office responded nicely, everyone was accounted for within a few minutes. It was much better than a normal fire drill, which people ignore.
Within about 30 minutes, they confirmed there had been a bomb scare, but the building was clear and we were allowed to return. Both the City of San Jose police, and the unionized security guards at our building, performed admirably in responding to the crisis and making sure that everyone got out.
Overall, an exciting morning of government waste caused by a wingnut who probably thinks he made a really excellent point about his opposition to receiving decent health care.