[larrys]

"AOL is no worse for having someone sleeping on their couch."

The assumption the companies has is that the building is clear each night. Having a person there could be an issue simply if there is a fire or other event and emergency personnel involved. In no way can any responsible company tolerate this type of stowaway.

[mindcrime]

The assumption the companies has is that the building is clear each night. Having a person there could be an issue simply if there is a fire or other event and emergency personnel involved.

FWIW, from a firefighter's perspective, I can assure you that - in the event of a fire - the fire department does not assume a building is clear just because it's the middle of the night or whatever. There are any number of reasons why people could be inside at 2:00am, 3:00am, etc. Maintenance work being done, facilities people cleaning, cheating executives banging their mistresses on their desk, etc., etc. In the case of a working fire, a primary search is going to be done (conditions permitting) anyway.

In no way can any responsible company tolerate this type of stowaway.

You're probably right, but I don't really think the reasons this is true have much to do with emergency scenarios. If anything, I'd lean more towards "what if the elevator was being repaired late at night, and the stowaway fell into an elevator shaft and plunged to his death?" and any potential liability that might come out of that.

[larrys]

"the fire department does not assume a building is clear just because it's the middle of the night or whatever."

Thank's for pointing that out. In retrospect I can see how assumptions similar to the one that I made can cause plenty of errors in emergency situations.

"a primary search is going to be done (conditions permitting) anyway."

I watched a docudrama on the Reagan assassination attempt last night. One of the mistakes they made I believe was assuming Reagan wasn't hit by a bullet because a) he seemed fine and said he hadn't been hit and b) the secret service said he wasn't hit.

While "a" would seem to be pretty valid info "b" was based on "a". After all you can't really see whether a bullet hits someone generally. So in keeping with your "primary search" with fires, they shouldn't have "assumed" the info they were getting was correct and fully checked him out much earlier. (And in fact I'm sure that is probably they way they would operate in the future learning from that mistake.)

[jrockway]

Indeed. Some buildings are used normally at 2am. When we have games night at Google, it's rare that it's over before 2. This is an expected use for the building -- it's considered open 24/7/365.

I imagine there are AOL employees that work late, too, or fall asleep on the company couch.

[mcav]

As someone who worked in the building at a startup a few months ago, the answer is no: most are gone by 5pm, all by 8pm.