I've worked in the same building for the past 10 years, 7 months, and 13 days. The building I work in is rather large, mostly in width and depth, but only 4 stories high. The planning of this building was not well thought out. You enter on one side of the building, and walk into a grand atrium with skylights, trees, and elevators. This is the only elevator access throughout the building. To finish setting this pointless story up, I have worked on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors.
It is an un-written rule, that unless you have an obvious major medical condition, you do not take the elevator to the second floor without receiving looks to kill. There is a fun spiral staircase in the atrium that goes up one level, or there are countless stairwells throughout the building. The elevators are painfully slow, so people on the 3rd and 4th floors feel highly inconvenienced if you have to make a stop at the 2nd. When I was pregnant with twins I worked on the second floor, and I would have contractions when walking up the stairs. Every time I got in the elevator, I felt like I had to explain to everyone why I was there and making them stop.
Now that I work on the 3rd floor, I have a set of standards that I try to abide by. If I'm going up stairs, and happen to be walking in front of the elevator and the door is open, I'll take the elevator. Otherwise, I take the stairs. This morning I got in the elevator and kept the door open for a woman who was running towards me saying "Please hold the elevator for me!" Okay, no problem. I, following proper elevator etiquette, say "Which floor?" as I pressed the number three button. The woman says "Oh, three is good."
Three is good? Does she not know which floor she needs to go to work on? So wherever I'm going, it's good for her? Truthfully, I think she needed to go to the second floor, but didn't want me to give her the evil eye, so she asked for 3 and walked to 2. It could be that I'm overanalyzing this. Personally, I think it's easier to walk up a flight of stairs than it is to walk down a flight of stairs. But I'm weird like that.
With this big long pointless boring story, I'll end it like this. Even still, as annoying as it is to stop on the second floor for the lazy peeps, it still beats the one thing that makes me cringe, that I hear almost daily. It's worth repeating, this building has 4 floors. After I ask "Which floor?" Someone trying to be clever and make small talk in an elevator full of strangers, will inevitably say "Five please, I hear that's where the hot tub is".
It defies all sense of personal integrity to laugh out of courtesy.
8 comments:
I used to get on elevators in that one tall building on BYU campus and do stuff like face the back wall, just to weird people out. There are so many "rules" to elevator riding and we rarely even recognize them explicitly.
I work on the first floor of my building but I take the elevator every day... to the second floor bathrooms.
The second floor is occupied entirely by a car rental call center. Those poor schleps don't get to use the bathroom all day long, only when they are told. As a result, those restrooms are always empty and clean :)
OK, so here's the real question about all this...
Do you have any pictures of YOU in the elevator in that same position?!?
;]
Here, the etiquette is to greet AND say farewell to people on the elevator. This usually consists of at least a "hello" (in the local language of course) and a "farewell and have a lovely day" to each person you encounter in the small metal box. It's enough to make me take the stairs. Luckily I just moved to the ground floor.
Oh, and you will get dirty looks here for taking the elevator to the 2nd (ie, american 3rd) floor as well. I used to work on the 2nd floor. I took the elevator anyhow - mostly from sheer defiance. My small rebellions make all the difference in the world, I'm sure of it. :-P
I work in a two story building. I take the elevator almost every morning (but only in the morning) because I'm not a morning person and at that time of day I just can't make the effort.
I had an oversexed buddy in law school who claimed to have had sex in an elevator at the Sears Tower when he worked there. Scarily, another person in the room nonchalantly responded, "oh, I did that," like it was something everybody did. I had an elevator sex dream a couple of weeks ago, but nobody wants to hear about that.
I do, Randy. Let's hear all about it.
:)
FTA- I love it! I can just see you facing the opposite direction, that must have caused some interesting looks from some people. haha!!
Pete- yay for empty and clean bathrooms, but why can't you take the stairs to the second floor?
Domo- you speaka my language! That lady just doesn't make a lot of sense. The irony.
Eric- NO!!
Wry- I love you and your small rebellions, the world would certainly suck if there weren't people like you! So interesting how different cultures do things so differently even simple things like riding elevators. Wow.
Belaja- It's a two story building with an elevator, I think that's a good excuse in and of itself to take it.
Randy- That's pretty hot! And elevator, huh? Any hints as to what your sex dream was about?
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