Looking for help - relates locking up the office at the end of work day!

[brokentelephone]

Hi guys--

Hoping someone can help me sort out a little inefficiency at my office.

Essentially, we work in a large building with a central entrance which is locked and alarmed every night by the last person who leaves. Starting after 8pm, anyone still in the building will send out an email to the master building list letting the whole office know they're still here so they don't get locked in, for example:

Mailto: All@Lockingup -- Still here for another hour.

Then, everyone who plans on staying beyond that hour will reply saying, "I'll be here for 2 hours," etc., etc., Then, that person will stay for however long and when he decides to go home he'll send out an email like "I'm leaving -- is anyone here", and then if no one replies it means that this person should lock and alarm the building.

Basically, its annoying b/c sometimes people don't reply immediately and they end up getting locked inside the building (and the office manager has to come back to unlock/disable the alarm), and because in the morning I might have 20-30 emails with something about locking up in the subject header -- makes it difficult to spot relevant emails that have come in the night.

It is a silly way of doing this and I don't know of a better way.

Any ideas?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Why not just call on the phone?

 

[Trotter]

I moved this thread here so the OP can respond if needed.

If nothing else, why not use something like an open Google Doc? Even an intraweb page that works like a chat, or something along those lines?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Failing that, you can get a program like IM, except it stays on the local network. E.g. this: LAN Messenger, Secure Chat - Instant messaging software (IM).

You can send out group messages, or heck even just check and see who's online. You can also setup a script on every computer which shuts down the computer if it's inactive for more than 30 minutes after 9:00PM or something like that.

With that, you'll also be able to see who's online and who's already shutdown their machines (i.e. left for the day).

 

[brokentelephone]

Hi guys--

Thanks for the reply.

I suppose the instant messaging option would be best, but it still doesn't completely solve the problem as email is almost as good.

I was thinking of some software that was more like a check-in/check-out type thing -- like an online version of what Fred Flintstone did when he arrived at work.

Anyone else?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Well again, you could write a script pretty easy. Have an icon in the taskbar of every computer which the user presses which either 'clocks them in' or 'clocks them out' (depending on whether they were already in or out). That program syncs to a master list on one of your servers. If anyone wants to check if anyone's still in the building, they query the list. Pretty easy program to write. If you want I can knock it together

 

[overlord20]

When I was hanging around IT at the college, they had a message system which interrupted pretty much everyone's work and popped up a message saying what ever was needed. You could possibly set it up to pop up every 45 seconds until they respond. Pretty much annoy who ever is still on the network until they respond to it.

 

[brokentelephone]

Well again, you could write a script pretty easy. Have an icon in the taskbar of every computer which the user presses which either 'clocks them in' or 'clocks them out' (depending on whether they were already in or out). That program syncs to a master list on one of your servers. If anyone wants to check if anyone's still in the building, they query the list. Pretty easy program to write. If you want I can knock it together

That is ultra-generous of you -- but there are two problems. (A) I don't think people want to have to actually check in, especially me as I tend to rock up well after my contractual start date, and (B) we have people on Mac's, PC's, and some of the cleaners use their cell phones to check the emails as they don't have desks.

I suppose something email related is the best option seeing as how many platforms we have -- sorry, should have mentioned that in the initial post.

Thanks --