[dexwiz]

Many doors have a toggle on the face plate below or above the latch that changes auto lock behavior. But auto lock is good for security.

I once had a friend move out of a place in part because he would often get locked out. I showed him how to change this at his move out party.

[rob74]

> auto lock is good for security

Exactly... in the company where I work, propping open the door (maybe not so much the door to the building, but certainly the doors to our office) would be a sure way to get you into pretty serious trouble. Also, opening the door with your own access card for other people (although I occasionally do that for people I know).

[TeMPOraL]

Well, yes. Security tends to be opposed to everything that's good and nice about life. Sometimes it's worth it.

[pavel_lishin]

Sometimes that opposition is the reason there's good and nice things at all, though.

[marssaxman]

I would not normally expect to get away with it, but our security folks don't care; you can't get onto our floor without a badge or PIN, and we are a young enough startup that everyone still recognizes each other. The managers of the coworking space do not care what we do with the office suite we rent from them, and building security does not care what the coworking space does with its interior doors so long as the fire doors stay shut. The security folks at the head office of the coworking chain might care, as they're the ones operating the PIN lock we are bypassing, but they're not here to express an opinion.

Meanwhile, the phone rooms, bathrooms, printer, and most of the conference rooms are located outside our suite in the coworking space, so we'd all be punching in our eight-digit PINs half a dozen times a day getting back into our office if we didn't prop its door open.

[mikequinlan]

>Exactly... in the company where I work, propping open the door (maybe not so much the door to the building, but certainly the doors to our office) would be a sure way to get you into pretty serious trouble.

If it is a fire door then it can also be a fire code violation.

[seabass-labrax]

Many new doors in Britain have self-closing mechanisms - for instance, you can see photographs on the government guidance[1] for the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. The door naturally closes shut with a spring-loaded lever (figure 4) or chain (figure 5), but can be kept open with an electromagnet (figure 6). In case of fire, the power to all electromagnets in the building is cut so that the doors can close of their own accord.

Hopefully we can see more widespread use of these in domestic properties, where fires are still horrifically common[2] - well over 3/4 of all fire-related fatalities are in the home.

[1]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-engla...

[2]: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-and-rescue-inc...

[actionfromafar]

How thoughtful of you.

[dexwiz]

Haha, I would have told him ahead of time, but only learned of the reason at the party, after he had packed up his apartment and signed a new lease.