So I’m at work one day at lunchtime, and my wife calls me. “Are you ok?” she asks. “Sure, why not?” I reply, a little puzzled by the question. “Well, the news just said there’s a major chemical spill at your office…”
Rewind a bit. I’m working at the Harcourt building in Orlando, across the street from Sea World. We have some people relocating their departments, so we’ve spent the morning packing up our desks and moving ourselves. Like most people, I take the opportunity to clean my new environs, but in my case I just use a wet paper towel. After all, it’s just dust.
Other folks, however, insist on using the spray cleaners from the business supply cabinet, and a few were overcome by the fumes. (Too much spraying, not enough ventilation.) So they felt lightheaded and nearly fainted, and someone called HR.
HR, of course, followed the rulebook and called 911 to report they had employees that were overcome with chemical smells. The 911 dispatcher also followed the rulebook, and called a police car and EMT to the scene.
Cue the media…
One of the local news organizations, clearly monitoring the emergency bands, hears that there was some sort of chemical incident at Harcourt. They have their traffic copter swing by, and they see hundreds of employees leaving the building. They rush to the airwaves with a report of a chemical spill at the building. Mary saw that and called me.
The reporters didn’t realize that everybody was just going to lunch.
So the EMT show up, and the employees are fine. Then, of course, the news team arrives for their big scoop. And they get pissed off that it isn’t a bigger deal. No retraction, no correction, no story.
See what happens when you try to get too clean?