to think this woman is a bit crackers?

[Kladdkaka]

I'm wasting time on MN working very hard on my next assignment in my husband's office and a lady comes in from a firm of decorators who are repainting all the windows in the university. She asks nicely for all the stuff around the windows to be moved so the painters can crack on when they've finished the ones further along. Fair enough.

Then she asks my husband to unlock the door in the corridor so they can get access to the remaining windows. Husband politely tells her no, because they don't have security clearance. She gets rather insistent and again he tells her that it's a high security area and only people with clearance are allowed in there. She then starts arguing with him on the basis that the maintenance department have authorised her team to paint all the windows and therefore he MUST let her in. He responds that she may well be authorised by the maintenance guys to go in, HOWEVER, he is authorised by the National Security Services to ensure she stays out.

She's stomped off now to report him to the maintenance manager

Crackers, no. Pissed off, probably.

How are they going to paint the windows if you won't let them in?

Why pissed off though? He wasn't being awkward, she just isn't allowed in there. Very few people are.

Bit bemused at the point of this thread. Do you want us to fawn over the fact that your husband works somewhere secure?

She may be pissed off as her team can't do the work. She'll have to go to the effort of getting clearance.

not crackers at all, seriously peed off yes.

How will the decorators paint the windows?

Not crackers, bemused probably. Clearly security protocol contradicts practical necessity. I think his flat no was probably the problem, after all there must be contingency / policy for situations where no-cleared people have to access an area. They can't all wait for security clearance before they paint. So I suppose if he said the maintenance people don't have that authority, in this situation a security cleared person is needed, so an escort will have to be arranged then they can go in.

He was being a little obstinate in not advising what procedure is possible to overcome the obvious paradox of the situation.

Nancy, I think they have their own maintenance man who has to do everything in that area. Even the main maintenance department aren't allowed in there.

poor woman, she's only trying to do her job, someone somewhere obviously hasn't done theirs right in getting her whatever authorisation is needed

She's just trying to get her job done.

How is she to know she's not allowed in unless she asks?

Clearly someone has misinformed her and all she knows is that she's been sent to do a job and now she's being told she isn't allowed in to do that job. It's not your DH's fault but it's certainly not hers, either. And to be honest, it does come across as a bit self-important of your DH to assume that she will know he is correct/his authority is higher than whoever told her she should go in. As far as she could know, he could be talking bollocks so she is right to check.

If its so secure and a matter of security () then why are you in your husbands office working there? Unless you work for him of course.....

If she needs security clearance, which she doesn't have, I can't see how the OP's husband could possibly let her in! It would probably land him trouble if he did.

She's crackers for doing her job?

Then your husband must be crackers for doing his, right?

I don't get the point of this topic, it's not even amusing.

Bit bemused at the point of this thread. Do you want us to fawn over the fact that your husband works somewhere secure?

No, my husband doesn't work there. He's on the other side of the door. I was just a bit bemused as to why an adult wouldn't grasp that they don't have access all areas.

Ok, I'll take the bait.....a university you say - what the hell is so secret? is your Dh involved in some massive genetics thing or nuclear or summat - and yes, how come YOU are security cleared?

kladd, evidently someone has told her she should go in. I doubt she's just thought to herself 'hmm, nowt to do today, I think I will wander into that secure-looking building and insist on painting all their windows'. Someone will have employed her to do this job.

Are in Oxford or Cambridge? Are they making a new spiderman type mutant or something?

jeez, people!! relax.

The OP never said she was in the security cleared area. Read the thread before you hop down her throat.

If she had already obtained the necessary clearance to enter the secure area then surely she would have been issued with the key/code to unlock the door? The OP's DH would have been the unreasonable one if he had let some random woman into a secure area just because she said she was in charge of people doing painting.

If its so secure and a matter of security () then why are you in your husbands office working there?

I'm on the other side where being buzzed in and having to wear a visitors badge is all that's required.

Anyways I was just wasting my time musing about what's going on around me. Don't come here often, first time in 4 years.

Your husband clearly did the only thing he could do. He doesn't have the authority to grant access to a secure area.

She can sort it out with someone who does and come back.

he'd be in far more trouble for letting someone into a restricted area without clearance than not.

Oooh I'm intrigued now.

Yy, Possibly genetics... Cloning perhaps? Or a secret recipe! Do you guys work for Colonel Sanders?