Department stores and major retailers use a "Code" system for announcing problems over the PA. THis can range from an employee getting injured to a simple spill on an aisle. While they differ from store to store, there is one that everyone uses for the same meaning: Code Adam. For those of you who do not know, Code Adam is an internationally-recognized "missing child" safety program in the United States and Canada, originally created by Wal-Mart retail stores in 1994. It is named in memory of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John Walsh. Adam was abducted from a Sears department store in Florida in 1981 and was later found murdered. Today, many department stores, retail shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, amusement parks, and museums participate in the Code Adam program. Legislation enacted by Congress in 2003 now mandates that all federal office buildings employ the program.
Yesterday, I heard a page come over the PA announcing a Code Adam. Immediately, I rushed to the nearest entrance / exit door to the store and put it into lockdown with another associate. Protocol dictates that once a Code Adam has been called, no one enters or leaves the premise. Period. Associates from every department went to their respective doors and facilitated with this while management and the parents began searching for their missing child (details of the child omitted to respect privacy).
I must admit, it was an almost chilling experience. The parents were running around frantically calling out the name of their child, and you could hear the fear and panic in their voice. It would be impossible to not sympathize with them, as their desperation was intensely visible and audible.
About half way through this, a lady slowly approaches the front door where I'm at with her two children, both of whom were probably around the same age of the child missing, though clearly not matching the description of who we were looking for. They stand there for about a minute or so and then she approaches me. She points to her watch and says that she has to take her kids somewhere by a certain time and asked to be let out. I apologized, but explained to her that we were in lock down to locate a missing child and that we would reopen the doors once we knew the child was safe. A large crowd was beginning to form outside as well, because they were not being let in either. She began to get angry at me for not giving her this special permission, so I replied that this is the same courtesy we would be extending to her if one of her children went missing (and I proceeded to point in their direction) and then followed up my remark in saying that the only way she would be allowed to leave the building while under a Code Adam was with a police escort. Three guesses who then immediately whipped out her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1 (the American emergency response number).
At about that same moment, the all clear was given and confirmed, so she decided to hang up and exit the premise. On her way out, she muttered something about false imprisonment and was clearly annoyed at me for following the protocol.
Now here is where the rant comes in... I was ENRAGED at her. How dare her think that her little scheduling conflict was more important that locating a missing child. And to think... she had kids of her own!!! I mean, I understand some people are idiots and don't understand the importance of everything going on around them, but she had kids, so I am shocked she didn't have a natural tendency to feel sympathetic in any visible way towards the child in question. I can only hope we pissed her off enough that she doesn't come back to the store, because that blatant disregard for concern and welfare for another individual is horrifying.
In regards to the child, Code Adam was disabled as she was found safely and without other incident. Thankfully, this time it was a success.
Ribbitz works for a retail chain and was present on this day to serve out the Code Adam with fellow employees. He can only hope in reading this small account for what happened that people show greater interest in the well-being of others and less for just themselves.
Yesterday, I heard a page come over the PA announcing a Code Adam. Immediately, I rushed to the nearest entrance / exit door to the store and put it into lockdown with another associate. Protocol dictates that once a Code Adam has been called, no one enters or leaves the premise. Period. Associates from every department went to their respective doors and facilitated with this while management and the parents began searching for their missing child (details of the child omitted to respect privacy).
I must admit, it was an almost chilling experience. The parents were running around frantically calling out the name of their child, and you could hear the fear and panic in their voice. It would be impossible to not sympathize with them, as their desperation was intensely visible and audible.
About half way through this, a lady slowly approaches the front door where I'm at with her two children, both of whom were probably around the same age of the child missing, though clearly not matching the description of who we were looking for. They stand there for about a minute or so and then she approaches me. She points to her watch and says that she has to take her kids somewhere by a certain time and asked to be let out. I apologized, but explained to her that we were in lock down to locate a missing child and that we would reopen the doors once we knew the child was safe. A large crowd was beginning to form outside as well, because they were not being let in either. She began to get angry at me for not giving her this special permission, so I replied that this is the same courtesy we would be extending to her if one of her children went missing (and I proceeded to point in their direction) and then followed up my remark in saying that the only way she would be allowed to leave the building while under a Code Adam was with a police escort. Three guesses who then immediately whipped out her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1 (the American emergency response number).
At about that same moment, the all clear was given and confirmed, so she decided to hang up and exit the premise. On her way out, she muttered something about false imprisonment and was clearly annoyed at me for following the protocol.
Now here is where the rant comes in... I was ENRAGED at her. How dare her think that her little scheduling conflict was more important that locating a missing child. And to think... she had kids of her own!!! I mean, I understand some people are idiots and don't understand the importance of everything going on around them, but she had kids, so I am shocked she didn't have a natural tendency to feel sympathetic in any visible way towards the child in question. I can only hope we pissed her off enough that she doesn't come back to the store, because that blatant disregard for concern and welfare for another individual is horrifying.
In regards to the child, Code Adam was disabled as she was found safely and without other incident. Thankfully, this time it was a success.
Ribbitz works for a retail chain and was present on this day to serve out the Code Adam with fellow employees. He can only hope in reading this small account for what happened that people show greater interest in the well-being of others and less for just themselves.
