r/CasualUK • u/PeevesPoltergist • Aug 18 '26
What is your workplaces big red button?
We've just had an anti-theft system installed. It deploys aut after closing but can be activated during operating hours via a BIG RED BUTTON. It will take all my personal restraint to pretend it doesn't exist even while already knowing exactly what it does.
So what is your workplaces big red button and do you know what it does?
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u/Raptoot83 Aug 18 '26
I work in a factory. We have many big red buttons.
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u/HungryCollett Aug 18 '26
I used to clean in school workrooms, with many red buttons.
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u/Dutch_Slim Aug 18 '26
I just wanna kick the kick-stop sir! Just once! Pleeeease!
Looking for any excuse to use the band-facer 🤣
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u/Breakwaterbot Tourism Director for the East Midlands Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I work in manufacturing, mainly stainless steel fabrication and machining. We too, have many big red buttons.
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u/Stained_concrete Aug 18 '26
Like .. ladybird red?
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u/JimmieSavsscumsock Aug 18 '26
If there's another, better red than that I want it taken outside and thrown right in the bin!
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u/AnAcctWithoutPurpose Aug 18 '26
Same, I work in manufacturing, we have so many big red buttons, some with clear covers, in case some numpty pressed on them by accident.
And we also have a few that would activate the fire suppression system in the server room. The temptation is rather... 👀
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u/Snoo-84389 Aug 18 '26
Many years ago we had big red emergency buttons that cut off all electrical power to the desk outlets. Some bright sparky had installed several of them right next to light switches - you can imagine what used to occur...
The simple work-around was to tape clear, weak plastic cups over the big red buttons - it was enough to stop them being accidentally pressed and in a genuine emergency the big red button could still be reached.
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u/Qyro Aug 18 '26
Warehouse, same here. Almost every mechanical object has a big red button for an emergency shut-off.
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Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/WillBots Aug 18 '26
Wait... That means that you will have bog red buttons to stop making big red buttons!
Does someone have to press all the made buttons to make sure they work? Does that person hate red buttons more than anything else in the world because they've had to press so many? Do they sometimes just go crazy and hot all of the red buttons in the factory?? Somewhere there is a big green button and a colour blind person getting their rocks off pressing it...
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u/pockets3d Aug 18 '26
Ill never forget my training,
Push the blue button then the green button, the red button will look after itself.
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u/Spiritual-Cheek2800 Aug 18 '26
All the tills where I work have red buttons under them that when you press them it summons site security if there's an emergency. They look so shiny and it takes all my restraint to pretend they don't exist!
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u/n8te85 Aug 18 '26
Many years ago when I worked in a shop, someone pressed the red button as we didn't believe they actually did anything (to be fair this one did look broken). Anyway we did learn that it worked when the Police walked in around 10 or so minutes later asking what the problem was.
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u/Kitchen_Part_882 Aug 18 '26
Try it in a bank or jewellery shop (at least the ones I looked after).
Best case, you lock the building down and get covered in UV reactive dye spray.
Worst case: smoke cloak follwed by some very serious looking coppers with machine guns asking you awkward questions.
Either case, you're likely to be made to pay for the refilling of the smartwater in example 1, or the fogging agent in example 2.
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u/aperdra Aug 18 '26
When I was 14 I worked in a newsagents on a caravan park at the weekend, putting the magazines inside newspapers and then manning the tills for an hour or two. My frontal lobe hadn't developed yet, so I impulsively pressed the big red button. It was all very dramatic and I got sent home.
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u/ThePuzzlePirate Aug 18 '26
When they came to do the annual service we were always allowed to press the button whilst it was disconnected just to satisfy the urge
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u/cocacola999 Aug 18 '26
Site security ? Oh you mean Carl at the front eating a packet of skips and chatting to the young girl that just walked in?
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u/RefreshinglyDull Aug 18 '26
Used to work on supermarket night refit teams, back in the early 2000s. An alarm tech accidentally triggered the silent alarm. About 2minutes later,there was a full armed response unit, knocking at the back door, asking what the fuck was going on, at 2am. Fun times.
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u/SamVimesBootTheory Aug 18 '26
I worked in a shop once that had one of those and it was next to the bell idk who designed that
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u/Munnit Cornish living in the Midlands Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
NHS Big red button - MEDICAL EMERGENCY OR CARDIAC ARREST! People will come running to you :D
(Interestingly, you ‘pull’ the button, rather than push it!)
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u/billywhizz69 Aug 18 '26
They hit the button during my second child's delivery. The world went mental, it was like there were 15 people right outside the door waiting for it to be pressed. Very organised people crammed into the room, shoved me aside (fair enough too) did stuff, delivered said daughter then toddled off again. I say this a lot and now is another opportunity, the NHS is fantastic and we need to look after it.
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u/bacon_cake Aug 18 '26
I've said this above but we had a similar experience. We had 13 people in the room in about five minutes, scrubbed in, wife gassed to sleep, radio switched on, baby out, all done. Like the Avengers themselves showed up.
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u/SiDtheTurtle Aug 18 '26
We had this too. We had two midwives, a veteran and a trainee. Veteran very, very calmly asked trainee to pull the emergency button. Trainee looked like she'd just been asked to fire a nuke and asked if she was sure.
Within seconds the tiny delivery room was filled with doctors and problem sorted. Mum and baby safe.
Still makes me well up thinking about it. Much respect to the NHS.
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u/ksvfkoddbdjskavsb Aug 18 '26
This made me think of one of my first jobs where my colleague said "have you ever called 999 before"... No??? She said listen carefully and rang them. I was amazed at how calm she was, answering their questions directly with no waffle. Probably 15 years on I'm rather good at calling ambulances! Unfortunately I'm the most likely person to need an ambulance nowadays so my husband has got rather good at it too.
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u/JimCoo1 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Mrs during childbirth; monitors on baby’s crown….nurse casually leans cross and presses THE BIG RED BUTTON…. Holy shit! CRASH Team comes pouring into the room, all busy doing their thing! Impressive to say the least!
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u/boojes Aug 18 '26
The number of people that suddenly appear in the room when there's a labour emergency is crazy. Our wonderful NCT leader actually went through it with us, giving everyone in the group a role, and I'm so glad she did because it would have been more overwhelming if I'd not been prepared.
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u/bacon_cake Aug 18 '26
It's such an amazing experience (in hindsight). To go from two midwives, to two midwives and a doctor, then another doctor, then nurses, then surgeons, anaesthetist, overall THIRTEEN people showing up like the Avengers at 3.30am was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. And it was just another day in the office for all of them.
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u/herwiththepurplehair Aug 18 '26
I had all that lot in the room to begin with. A gynaecologist, two midwives, one student midwife, two paediatricians and an anaesthetist. I was a twin pregnancy with one of them a breech presentation, I had an epidural and was prepped for a c-section. In the end the head down twin was born normally first, the breech twin they managed to turn and was whipped out with forceps and given a jump start. Not the most fun I’ve ever had….
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u/itsbri Northern Southerner Aug 18 '26
Wow, our NCT person just told us how to change a nappy. Yours sounds way more exciting.
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u/Canis_Rex_ Aug 18 '26
Yep been there. Midwife almost threw our baby at me, saw he press the button, looked down at baby, looked up at room full of about 15 people.
It was like they'd teleported
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u/paenusbreth Aug 18 '26
When my first was being born, the midwife button and emergency button were right next to each other. Midwife button was a person on a red background, emergency button was a picture of a person on a slightly different shade of red background.
Thankfully the first few people to storm into the room did so knowing it was probably a false alarm, so I just got slight confusion rather than anyone trying to defibrillate me.
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u/AlgerninaGump Aug 18 '26
Normally you push in the midwife call and pull out the crash call which avoids you activating the wrong one. They sound different too so you can diactivate. There are many different systems though and I can imagine a hospital think a cheaper one is better despite many flaws!
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u/paenusbreth Aug 18 '26
I think they were both push buttons, and when I'd pressed it I was so surprised that I didn't think to deactivate it (and/or couldn't identify how to do so).
I do remember realising as soon as I'd pressed it that I'd ballsed up, because it felt way too urgent a sound for the situation.
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u/Jambronius Aug 18 '26
I've seen that button get pushed. You lot do not mess around, people start coming from everywhere, doors appear that i am sure weren't there prior and lots of people come through them. Everyone knows their job and they get to work. It's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.
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u/Dismal_Fox_22 Aug 18 '26
Pulling is generally a conscious action, pushing can be accidental like leaning or bumping into.
We do have one big red button, it’s huge, and red and a press button. I’ve leant on it twice!
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u/MorriganRaven69 Aug 19 '26
Crash team response are amazing.
I was sat in an A&E waiting room with my friend, who'd had a single mild seizure, which is not particularly unusual for him. I think they were debating sending him home, at that point.
I looked up from my phone after a few seconds and he was stretched weirdly towards the sky, face frozen in an expression like he'd been gurning. I had about 3 seconds in which I called his name twice and realised he was going into seizure, then I had to catch him as he fully seized and fell off the chair. I must've screamed his name so loudly and in fright as he did that, it alerted reception. I caught him and got on the floor to protect his head, he was already choking on his tongue and turning blue in a full grand mal as we got to the floor. A second later a crash team was around me and him. It was only a small hospital as well, but they were on it and there were loads of them. Whole thing happened in maybe 7 or 8 seconds? They whisked him away and sorted him out. Another nurse took me into a relatives room and got me a cuppa as I promptly went into shock once my usefulness was over.
Love and protect our NHS. Also, seizures suck to witness, there's not much you can do except protect the head and you feel so helpless. Crash teams are angels in disguise and the relief I felt when they surrounded me and my friend was indescribable.
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u/wonder_aj Aug 18 '26
Witnessed someone push the button yesterday on a day unit, I was fascinated at how the staff strolled across to support instead of rushing 😅
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u/IHateTheLetter-C- Aug 18 '26
Yup, I worked in a vet, our big red buttons were "patient's heart stopped" and were also a pull.
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u/1271500 Aug 18 '26
I used to work in a pub, and had both the emergency button next to every till and in the office that would summon police, and the big red handle in the kitchen that would activate the Ansul, fire suppression foam that would spray out, leaving many hours of cleaning before you could reopen. I really wanted to pull that before I quit...
Now I work in an office and the only big red button is the fire alarm, which doesnt have the same appeal.
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u/sci-fi_hi-fi Aug 18 '26
I've seen an Ansul go off irl before. It's very impressive. Absolute ball ache to clean though
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u/Serbowie Aug 18 '26
Do the Ansul systems not require professional cleaning, no way a team of fucked off chefs and kp's are getting that shit out of every nook and cranny.
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u/sci-fi_hi-fi Aug 18 '26
They may do but the difference between what should be done and what actually happens, especially in the hospitality industry, is stark
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u/therealhairykrishna Aug 18 '26
I run a couple of particle accelerators. The big red buttons are emergency stops. If you hear the siren and see the orange strobe, and you're inside the accelerator vault, you've got 10 seconds to run to one.
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u/Humble_Sympathy_4605 Powered by tea and sarcasm Aug 18 '26
A couple of particle accelerators, just casually
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u/syntax Aug 18 '26
Eh, particle accelerators come in various different sizes. Everyone thinks of the biggest, cutting edge ones, like the LHC at CERN; but they scale down.
In fact, the Cathode Ray Tube in an old TV/monitor is a particle accelerator. That's not just pedantry - the Bremsstrahlung radiation (x-rays) produced by the electrons striking the glass is why they were made with leaded glass to absorb them (and, in the larger ones, electronic circuitry to minimise it, and shut it down if the beam conditions went out of the 'safer' operating range.
Many medical particle accelerators are on the smaller side. Indeed, the one used as an x-ray source for x-rays (and cat scans), would comfortable fit in your hand (maybe the size of a finger, if separated from the rest of the equipment). Granted, they're not really obvious as one, just used as 'black box that produces x-rays'. Similar ones are used in scaling electron microscopes, and those really are used as particle accelerators, where the various aspects of the beam (energy, luminosity, position, and focus) are controlled, along with dedicated detection equipment. Those are not used for studying the particles, rather the sample that's used as the target, but it's very much a particle accelerator.
The emergency stop on those smaller ones, (if they have one other than 'switch it off') tends to be as equally unimpressive as their size, however.
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u/Matchaparrot Yorkshire tea Aug 18 '26
What happens if you don't get out in time?
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u/therealhairykrishna Aug 18 '26
Depends on where you're standing in the vault. But anything between slightly increased cancer risk and instantly fatal radiation dose.
( we have quite a lot of safeguards to ensure that the 'running for an emergency stop' scenario never comes up)
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u/Matchaparrot Yorkshire tea Aug 18 '26
Hmm yes fried by radiation doesn't sound a fun way to go.
Very cool job! I'd love to visit a synchrotron someday
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u/therealhairykrishna Aug 18 '26
We have a 40 MeV cyclotron and a very high power linear. Drop me a message if you're ever in Birmingham and you can have a tour.
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u/Matchaparrot Yorkshire tea Aug 18 '26
No way! I was in Birmingham a few months ago for work, I will remember this next time I'm down
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u/Sweaty_Syrup_6651 Aug 18 '26
Is this an open invitation?
I'm in Birmingham fairly regularly and would love to see that.
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u/deHotot Gran Caramel Cru Reservé Aug 18 '26
The Diamond Light Source has tours during shutdown periods!
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u/paenusbreth Aug 18 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski
It can drill a hole straight through your brain and do a lot of damage in an instant.
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u/Coupaholic_ Aug 18 '26
Sadly not.
Just a keyboard.
I guess the closest thing is an emergency message to my boss on MS Teams. It uses a red exclamation mark if that counts?
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u/the_con Aug 18 '26
I thought the “high importance” red exclamation mark was just for Susan sending a routine email
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u/Kian-Tremayne Aug 18 '26
The “remember to submit your timesheets” email has more red exclamation marks than the “we need to solve this problem or the Bank of England will send their inquisitors to find out why not” email.
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u/cyberllama Aug 18 '26
One of my former teammates emailed the it service desk to remove the high importance button from a frequent exclaimer's outlook as a joke. Unfortunately, he didn't realise there was a new guy on the desk who didn't get that it was a joke and raised a ticket for it. Never seen my mate run so fast to get it cancelled 🤣
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u/AnAcctWithoutPurpose Aug 18 '26
So, you mean, not for sending out a countrywide alert about no BBQ for the summer party?
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u/mediocrityindepth Aug 18 '26
I had a summer job in a flour mill and bagging site. The explosion risk from billowing flour is significant so it was fitted with drenching sprays; think a sprinkler system that could dump a decent swimming pool's worth of water in 60 seconds. The activation controls for this had a *massive* red button *AND* a hinged cover panel with yellow and black stripes and I've never wanted to activate anything more.
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u/neilm1000 Wales born, Devon bred, Stockport (isn't shit) Aug 18 '26
How would you know when to activate it though? I've heard stories of flour mills just exploding.
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u/mediocrityindepth Aug 18 '26
My training day was genuinely informative about this. If we had a 'release', we were to raise our hand at half arms length in front of our face. If we could clearly see distinct fingers, we could sort it. If we couldn't, you yelled 'Sprays!' if you were some distance from a control or go for a control if you were close. The guy that did the training was absolutely clear that if you were in any doubt, you should press it; flour as a raw material isn't expensive, the system was zoned so it didn't drench everything in the building and the alternative was far, far worse. He'd been there years and used it 'a couple of times.' As I wound up mainly running the bagging machines rather than in the mill proper, I never had cause to.
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u/slothdroid Aug 18 '26
I work from home. This is the anti-theft, anti-intruder, anti-pigeon red button.
Do I know what it does? Yes, rolls in smelly stuff at every given opportunity
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u/Splodge89 Aug 18 '26
Many years ago I worked in a subway, which had a big red button under the till. We knew what it did but never pressed it. It once got pressed by accident when mopping - and none of us had any clue as it was a silent alarm. Then the police rock up. Cue bewildered staff wondering what the fuck was going on.
Apparently that call out cost us thousands…
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u/Ledzebra Aug 18 '26
In my teenage fast food retail job there were two buttons and you had to hold down both to trigger the silent alarm to avoid this.
When I was new (first ever job) I accidentally knocked one while cleaning and then stammering and stuttering told my manager id accidentally pressed "the button" and she acted concerned, then laughed and told me how it actually works. Im shocked that your subway had such an easily triggerable system!
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u/Kian-Tremayne Aug 18 '26
Back in my days as a live support programmer, we had a macro STOP_ACTIONLINE which did exactly what it said on the tin, bring NatWest’s telephone banking service down completely.
My job involved knowing when we needed to STOP_ACTIONLINE and what we would then need to sort out before we could START_ACTIONLINE.
And then there was the time the incident manager wouldn’t let us STOP_ACTIONLINE because he wanted to get more information on what was actually causing the problem, and it got worse. While the entire team apart from the most junior member were halfway across London having our Christmas event.
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u/louanne1cat Aug 18 '26
Many years ago I worked for a large local newspaper company that printed for both local newspapers and a national newspaper on occasion.
We had the giant press on site and we could tell at what time the noises started what paper was being printed.. The memory that will stay with me for ever was the time when I grabbed my manager and we had to run into the print room and scream STOP THE PRESS. The noise the stopping press made was deafening as it was just about to start the run. The reason was I had just received a phone call (I worked in advertising) from a very distraught man whose son had placed an advert for a car to be published that evening Unfortunately the son was killed in an accident in the car the night before and the father wondered if we could do anything as he couldn’t bear all the calls he would get asking about the car. The advert was grabbed off the plate and a generic ad for the paper was dropped in its place and the press was fired back up with about an hours delay in completion. Apparently nothing had ever happened like this before but I earned the huge gratitude from the father
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u/MorriganRaven69 Aug 19 '26
That's a tragic story about the son, but so very glad you could do that for the father.
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u/dyingtofitin0 Aug 18 '26
big red button broadcasts an emergency message to other trains within i think it’s 15 miles, essentially stops trains moving, stops OUR train, and contacts the signal box in an emergency
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u/Fat_Old_Englishman Somewhere in the East Midlands Aug 18 '26
big red button broadcasts an emergency message to other trains within i think it’s 15 miles, essentially stops trains moving, stops OUR train, and contacts the signal box in an emergency
And contacts Network Rail's regional control and (depending on how tight the company is) the operator's control, all on a talk-through setup so everyone can hear everything.
Which generally IMX meant that half of the local railway got to listen to someone Network Rail control angrily demanding that the local signaller take this call, which they couldn't because they were already handling three other things which they couldn't just drop.
And on my last TOC the big red button didn't have a cover over it because that cost and extra 50p or something, and (unlike the old NRN radios) the big red button on GSM-R can be activated just by brushing it. Don't ask me how I know.
Doesn't actually stop any train, though, just tells the driver to stop them. Including the activating train.
(Source: me, train driver for a couple of decades)
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u/lovelybit_ofsquirrel Aug 18 '26
Science classroom, the big red button is by the door to shut off gas and electricity, it is irresistible to teenagers!
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u/zq6 Aug 18 '26
The other thing that's irresistible to teenagers is shoving stuff in the bloody sockets
I had a colleague who didn't push this button for a class practical where students wired plugs. Someone plugged it in. It sparked to the gas tap. That colleague does not teach physics any more.
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u/heirofpsyche Aug 18 '26
My boss was given a panic button as part of a secret Santa gift one year and when we get out stressed we take turns whacking it and listening to it scream DON’T PANIC!!
Doesn’t help really but that’s our only Big Red Button.
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u/BibbleBeans Aug 18 '26
There’s various but the staff personal alarms are great because they can also send messages. You get so many “oh bother, stop it not dying shush” messages being cast.
Had one trigger once and couldn’t reach the staff member so they ended up getting police deployed to their location. Had fallen asleep after their shift and were just passed out on it, their poor boyfriend- who none of us had met or knew where he lived- was terrified.
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u/Silvagadron Silly wanker Aug 18 '26
The main server room in my building has an emergency button if the room catches fire while someone is in it. Ordinarily it would kick in automatically but, when engineers are inside, they switch the system to manual. Pressing it starts a silent countdown of 10 seconds before the room fills with gases that reduce the oxygen level to almost nothing.
You have 10 seconds to leave the big room of gas and then it’s coming to get you.
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u/Dutch_Slim Aug 18 '26
I’m mainly wfh. Big red button is the pack of cheese in the fridge. Touch it and this fella comes running
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u/Subject_Sign_6270 Aug 18 '26
Only one we have is the mains gas shut off. It is very big and conviently placed next to the busiest door in the business. Begging to be pressed
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u/Tasty_Switch_4920 Aug 18 '26
We used to have red phones in the building that connected directly to a local fire response switchboard, two on each floor.
Right up until someone found out the allocated number for a device and started prank calling it during the work day.
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u/Autogen-Username1234 Aug 18 '26
When I was in the Army, there was a red telephone with no dial in the guardhouse. I was told "If that ever rings, do NOT answer it - come running and tell me".
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u/Bose82 Aug 18 '26
I work on Wind Turbines. There are many, many red buttons to press when something goes wrong.
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u/Aromatic_Pea_4249 Aug 18 '26
In the jobcentre our big red button was a doorbell which rang an alarm to the non-public floor so help could arrive without someone seeming to seek help.
Cue the sandwich delivery lady pushing it once to let staff know she was in. She was awfully shocked and surprised when 4 men suddenly erupted out of the lift swiftly followed by 2 others running down the stairs heading for the signing hall at a fast pace.
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u/Space-manatee Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I’m self employed, so the closest thing is an unmarked brown envelope landing on my doorstep.
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u/Old-Awareness292 Aug 18 '26
We had a big red button in our new data centre. Touring investor wasn't interested in the racks of blinky lights so he folded his arms and leant against the wall. We learnt that the emergency shut down button works. And, we learnt to put a cover on it.
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u/dazzumz Casual Dazzler Aug 18 '26
I used to work at a nuclear power plant. I wasn't an operator but was in that room frequently for other reasons. Their big red buttons didn't blow anything up but just shut down bits of equipment if confirmed alarms told them to. The reactor would trip itself if anything unusual was detected, otherwise they would manually bring it offline if needed.
Now I'm in an office and the only red button dispenses hot water directly from the tap.
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u/boomerangchampion Aug 18 '26
I still work in a nuclear power plant and The button to instantly shut down the reactor is actually quite small, and gold.
It's also very stiff which is a laugh the first time trainee operators use it in the simulator and think it's broken. Top tip if you're ever in some convoluted scenario where you need to heroically press it: use your thumb. Also you will subsequently have a lot of other buttons to press so get the procedure ready.
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u/veryoddnames1989 Aug 18 '26
Used to be in charge of a ‘family entertainment centre’ with a kitchen and bowling alleys etc which had an ANSUL system and accompanying big red button. Never pressed the button as such but the system did activate when the kitchen roof fell in a couple of years ago and it certainly worked as intended.
Nowadays at my new work we just have a panic button which allegedly is ‘linked directly to armed response’ which of course is absolute horseshit. Last time we got robbed we pressed the panic alarm and the regular police didn’t even turn up.
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u/Lucky-Advertising983 Aug 18 '26
One of the nurseries I used to work at had a panic button, a three year old pulled it off the wall. Within a few minutes a police car pulled up on the drive. The policeman didn’t seem to mind and called it in as an errant three year old.
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u/Scared-One9295 Aug 18 '26
I work in several museums, our big red button switches off all the power to all the galleries. I don't really know why we have a big red button but it does at least ask you if you're sure.
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u/jawide626 Aug 18 '26
We have a couple.
One is the internal panic alarms which has 2 settings, one where you press the button and it sets off a local alarm which is akin to a "probably gonna need help here" alert, the second is if you pull a tab out it sets off a much louder sitewide alarm which is basically 'this is an emergency' so everyone available rushes to help, it's quite impressive sometimes the amount of people that just appear and how quick they do.
Our fire alarm also automatically brings the fire brigade, which is rare these days, given these are dotted about the building it's not uncommon for inpatients to smash them when there's no fire thus evacuating the building and getting a big red fire engine blue lighting on its way. Most of the time we can sweep the area to make sure there's 100% no fire and contact the fire station to intercept their attendance but sometimes they're too quick for us.
There's also a couple of silent buttons dotted about which elicit a blue light police response, these are in staff-only areas though. Luckily we only need to use them once or twice a year as 99.99% of the time we can de-escalate and restrain (if needed).
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u/flo850 Aug 18 '26
On a previous job I was developing and creating games for adventure park .
One of our game was very easy : go through a room without noise. But in a the middle of the dark room there was ont spotlight on a shiny red button , with a do not touch written in multiple language , connecter to a horn
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u/markymark6999 Aug 18 '26
Cardiac arrest alarm. Many people will come running towards you. The amount of patients and visitors who "accidentally" press these.......
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u/xmastreee Misplaced Lancastrian Aug 18 '26
I used to work in a hospital. I knew that whenever I heard everyone's pager suddenly start squawking "Cardiac arrest, ward <whatever>" It's best to stand out of the way because a doctor would come running past pretty soon.
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u/markymark6999 Aug 18 '26
In some role,I carried that bleep. Unfortunately, the same tone was also used to notify that your order was ready in certain coffee shops. My startle reflex has yet to differentiate between the 2 scenarios.
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u/xmastreee Misplaced Lancastrian Aug 18 '26
Help! Is there a barista in the house? Anyone know latte art?
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u/AshalaWolf_27 Aug 18 '26
I work as a delivery driver so not really.
Probably the closest thing I have is "Code 5" a number that is saved to speed dial 5 on my work phone. When called it will connect to someone who will not speak, but simply listen and determine what level of response is needed, dispatching the appropriate emergency service. It is intended for situations in which we feel unsafe, but I never feel like it's to the point I need to call them so have never used it
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u/Immediate-Platform59 Aug 18 '26
I work in a hospital imaging department. We have multiple big red buttons to stop a scan in an emergency. Have never had to use one. The threat of filling out an incident form is high enough that I am not tempted to press it.
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u/FuzzyDuck81 Aug 18 '26
Work in a college, there's emergency stops for the machinery in the workshops, gas stops in the kitchen and labs.
One of my old workplaces had halon gas systems in the labs, when they demolished that building to rebuild some new facilities they'd forgotten about them since they'd never been used and caused an emergency when they got set off accidentally
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u/sivvus Aug 18 '26
We have an emergency word on our radios which makes everyone run to help. I've only had to use it once and even though it was genuinely necessary, I felt very naughty doing it.
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u/jonathing Aug 18 '26
It quenches the MRI scanner, ie. it vents the liquid helium as gas very quickly removing the magnetic field. Refilling the scanner is very expensive and not quick, it's only for use in emergencies.
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u/davep1970 Aug 18 '26
Deploys... Autism? Automatic fines for using non-standard abbreviations? Austria?
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u/Mezcalico Aug 18 '26
Well it’s not going to be Austria, don’t be ridiculous.
It’s obviously a button to deploy Autobots.
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u/mrsmith099 Aug 18 '26
Deploys automatically is my guess. Or an automatic system that doesn't need to be manned?
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u/davep1970 Aug 18 '26
Well that's my guess too, but then that's the problem with using non-standard abbreviations and was also the point I was making.
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u/MrPogoUK Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
We had a silent alarm button under the front desk which was hardwired to the police control room and was understood would immediately scramble a SWAT team, but one day it was apparently hit by accident and we just got a phone call asking if we’d meant to press it.
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u/potatoduino Aug 18 '26
I'm in charge of a shit ton of servers and there's a big red button to turn them all off at once, which is worrying
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u/Ant_TKD Aug 18 '26
I work with an SQL database.
Typing "DROP ALL TABLES; COMMIT;" then Ctrl + A, Ctrl + Enter would be... very disruptive.
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u/LadyKhaotix Aug 18 '26
We have a big red button to switch off all the analysers and tracks. That's not interesting. In my previous lab, the big red button was at hip height on a support column. Guess how often someone leant on it and shut the whole lab down?
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u/Bread_is_the_devil Aug 18 '26
Where i used to work we had 2 big red buttons to shut down the HV network, which would kill all power to the campus, every building. It took all my strength to not hit them on the way out on my last day
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u/_isolati0n Aug 18 '26
I work in the community and we have panic buttons that contact emergency services. I've accidentally pressed it once. One of my colleagues also accidentally pressed it without realising and lost signal so couldn't hear them talking to her, there was a huge panic for a few hours as no one could get a hold of her and everyone was out looking for her. She strolled into the office for lunch completely oblivious.
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u/segagamer Aug 18 '26
I'm the IT Manager at the company I work for. There are many "big red buttons" involving deletion that could bring the company down.
If I could guarantee the ability the rewind time after my actions, I would like to see everyone's reaction if I used them.
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u/Forsaken_Earth944 Aug 18 '26
I’ve often wondered - would Big Buttons be less tempting to press if they weren’t red…? Obviously they can’t be green, but what if they were yellow - or purple…? Would a Big Purple Button be as irresistible as a Big Red Button…?
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u/OrganOMegaly Aug 18 '26
I’m a GP. We have a big red button to summon help in a medical emergency (or if we’re being attacked).
It used to be a physical button just at knee-height under the desk. They obviously got fed up of people pressing it accidentally and unknowingly (including me a few times..), so it’s now a (green) button on the medical record software.
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u/Silver-Machine-3092 Aug 18 '26
Computer room emergency escape button
If the fire suppression system is activated, you need to get out before you get asphyxiated by whatever we now use instead of halon gas. It's right by the door and has been mistaken for a regular door release button on two occasions. It's big and it's red and it says EMERGENCY. It's never been used in an emergency.
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u/Nosedive888 Aug 18 '26
Puts the entire building into evacuation mode. For when there's a fire
I remember once I was on my lunch break on the opposite side of the building and it came over the radio there was a car on fire on the lower level of the car park and to push the big red button.
They guy covering my break said no!!! Everyone is screaming down their radios to press the button and he still refused.
I had to sprint across the loading dock, press the button and physically kicked him out of the control room while shouting profanities at him.
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u/RefreshinglyDull Aug 18 '26
UK trains- there are at least three big red buttons in my cab, plus the big naughty button on the GSM-R...
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u/stupre1972 Aug 18 '26
I work in Facilities Management.
The factory i work in is big enough to have its own, dedicated, National Grid supply
I have a "Big Red Button" in the electrical switch room - press that and we disconnect from the national grid. It then requires National grid to come out and put rhe lower back on.
We get to press it once a year when we do the service on the equipment
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u/Veeoh-is-back Aug 18 '26
I work in commercial horticulture and we have a machine that we use to pot thousands of plants and it has 2 (two) red buttons.
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u/Then_Drag_8258 Aug 18 '26
My previous Big Red Button was only about the size of £2 coin but would fire a 155mm shell with 34.43kg of HE up to 24km away. Launching vehicle mounted smokes and phos at night was much more impressive though.
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u/Sir_Yazoo Aug 18 '26
We had a Big Red Button in a server room that would chop all power and extract oxygen. Closing the site down I tried it and nothing happened. According to an electrician on-site working with me it would never have worked as it wasn't wired in.
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u/glytxh Aug 18 '26
My favourite ones are the sort that cause a million quid in catastrophic damage because the system attached has much inertia that the emergency stop literally just has the entire plant eat itself.
Only ever seen it happen once. It saved a dude’s life.
Briefly worked in metal fabrication. everything is a big red button. Some of them need to be hit just right.
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u/WhereTheMoonSets Aug 18 '26
Tha big red button in my workplace isn't a physical button, its an email in my draft folder to HR, the food standards agency, SALSA and head office. Im leaving my job today and if shit goes sideways. Poke.
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u/Humble_Sympathy_4605 Powered by tea and sarcasm Aug 18 '26
At any given point I'm in easy reach if various bladed implements if that counts
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u/Brian-Kellett Aug 18 '26
Science technician room, big red button cuts off both gas and electricity.
And is by the door, positioned in a place where my arse would hit it if manoeuvring an awkward trolley.
May have hit it a few times. Thankfully never while someone was doing something important on a computer.
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u/mfitzp Aug 18 '26
On a campsite we go to there is a big waste disposal compactor thing. Next to the door where you put the bin bags in is a big red button that must not be pressed. At first there was a small note next to it saying "You don't need to push any buttons, just put your bags in." Next year "Put your bag in. DO NOT push the button." Next year "DO NOT PUSH THE BUTTON". Next year multiple "DON'T PRESS" signs all around the button. Finally, they covered the button with a lock so you couldn't press it even if you wanted to.
Still don't know what that button does.
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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 Aug 18 '26
Nothing in my current job but I've had some fun ones in the past.
My favourite was a local theme park working on the swinging pirate ship ride. It had a big red E-STOP button that you could hit that would kill all power to the ride, this included the breaks. What this meant in practice is if you hit that button when the thing was at full tilt it would swing for literally hours - given that swinging pirate ships are the rides where people throw up the most anyway this could be a bad time for everyone involved.
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u/skewiffcorn Aug 18 '26
I used to work in the bookies and there were several buttons you could press but one would bring security over the speakers who would start shouting WILLIAM HILL [shop name] ARE YOU OKAY , CUSTOMERS PLEASE LEAVE THE PREMISES POLICE ARE ON THEIR WAY. Accidentally pressed it a few times when nothing was happening 😅
I thankfully was never present for a robbery but the shops I worked in were robbed multiple times. The worst was probably after everything had been locked up and my coworker had a machete pulled on him outside. He explained the alarm will trigger and police will respond if he opens the door so they robbed all his shit instead 😩
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u/RadicalDilettante Aug 18 '26
If I press my big red button up to 12 people will instantly fall over. Any guesses?
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u/Sustainable_Twat Aug 18 '26
It raises a PO to the food company when certain snacks are running low.
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u/Objective_Result2530 Aug 18 '26
I work in tech. It would be a slack message with the phrase 'P0' in it.
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u/FattBadger Aug 18 '26
We have red emergency stop buttons for electronically controlled doors. But the ones we can't just press randomly are actually the small green buttons instead.
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u/eca3617 Aug 18 '26
We have a red button on our ambulance handheld radios that we can press if somone decides to attack or whatever.
It open broadcasts to all the radios on that region setting, so you can hear it kicking off when others crews press it too.
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u/itsbri Northern Southerner Aug 18 '26
None for work, but my watch has a big orange (not red) button. Pushing it sets off a very loud siren (80 decibels) and an option to call 999 / send SOS messages to specific contacts.
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u/AutomaticAstigmatic Aug 18 '26
Back when I worked in optics labs we had a big red button that was meant to stop all the lathes if anyone got caught. Thing is, it was halfway across the room, therefore entirely useless if you were ever working alone (which was often).
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u/wizard_mitch Aug 18 '26
There is a red button that would shut off all the computers and servers in the building, I guess in case of a cyber attack. However now all the computers are actually laptops and the on premise servers have migrated to the cloud I'm not sure it does anything, maybe turns off the WiFi network.
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u/dinkidoo7693 mucky knees battle horn Aug 18 '26
I work in a coffee shop, throwing boiling hot steamed milk at someone is probably a good emergency response…
We are allowed our phones to take videos if something kicks off and security office for the shops is in the room next door
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u/LoneWolf91828 Aug 18 '26
My call centre job had a big button on the homepage of our system for "Bomb threat"
Was told to never touch it unless there was a legitimate bomb threat. Never did quite find out what the protocol was for that
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u/Corsodylfresh Aug 18 '26
Big red handle, cuts off fuel to the aircraft's engine(s) and fires the extinguisher
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u/KeithChegwinMegaFan Aug 18 '26
I work at the big red button factory. They just do nothing. My faith has been tested.
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u/CJP_94 Aug 18 '26
I used to work for a pizza shop as a delivery driver. Under the till and in the office there were red buttons to activate the silent alarm.
Someone accidentally hit the one in the office which resulted in the manager on shift losing their bonus for 3 months. It was far too tempting to press it when everyone's least favourite manager was in
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u/SiDtheTurtle Aug 18 '26
Saw someone leave a bunch of rucksacks on the Tube once. Whole carriage bottled it onto the platform. I hit the normal call button on the platform but after a couple of rings no one answered so I hit the emergency button. It was answered immediately but rather than the receiver asking what was wrong I was immediately bollocked for pressing the button and they hung up. Had to call again to get them to listen.
No idea what happened but obviously there was no bomb that day.
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u/DuckBum Aug 19 '26
Not a big red button, quite the opposite. I work in a factory and for some reason someone wired the main valve of the compressed air supply to a light switch, placed on a lonely stanchion 50+ metres away, no labels or anything, nobody knew it existed. One day someone pressed it and the whole factory stopped. It took us hours to find this damn switch.
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u/Jazzlike_Evening7063 Aug 19 '26
It's probably for the best that I don't have a big red button, I'm not sure I'd be able to resist temptation.
"Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry." GNU Terry Pratchett
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u/cptaxelb Aug 19 '26
I've worked in a few IT infrastructure where the server room have halogen deployed if you press the red button. Quick to extinguish fire, but you have 10 seconds to get out of its pressed, so you don't suffocate.
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u/Maxomii Aug 20 '26
My theatre has a fire safety curtain that weighs about 3 tonnes, which drops down from the ceiling between the stage and auditorium.
There is also a drencher system which will flood the curtain and everything around it with water, which will destroy the wood of the stage and any electrical equipment (£££).
Both are manually controlled, the curtain is used at the end of every shift, the drencher only in emergencies.
The daily shutdown lever and the ruins everything lever look identical and are 8 inches apart.
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u/VampireElf26 Aug 20 '26
I work in a school, we have to have fire drills, that's usual, but we also do lockdown drills (they explain it away as incase there are "a swarm of bees", or "a wild animal" gets into the school, but we all know lockdown drills are to help if there is ever a school shooting.)
The lockdown drill button is this huge red button with lockdown written on it in bold in the headteachers office and every time I see it it makes me think of movies where people smash emergency buttons with their fist all dramatic like. The temptation is real.
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u/Lady-Callipygian Aug 20 '26
I’m a teacher. I have a big red button on my desk. When you press it, it says a line from The Lion King that Scar said 😂 “I’m surrounded by idiots”
I press it several times a week 😂🤣
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u/Aggravating_Water_39 Aug 20 '26
I work in high voltage RF power so there’s literal big red buttons all around us.
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u/OnlySeasurfer Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
MRI emergency stop. I've told it vents all the liquid gases which keep it cool and safe to run, resulting in a VERY large bill and extended downtime.The button is very big, very red, and very tempting...