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Elevator Etiquette
by Tricia
Recently I have been amazed by the simple things I learned growing up that it seems the general population did not learn. Mainly, the proper way to get on and off an elevator.
I work on the 5th floor of a glorified shopping mall. Our offices are not open to the general public, and most people who come to my office, upon finding out it's on the fifth floor of Crown Center are amazed to hear that Crown Center even has a fifth floor. This being said, I use the elevator every day. I don't have a choice - I'm not lazy, and if I could take the stairs, I would. In fact, I often take the stairs down. The problem is going up. The only entrance by stairs into our offices is through the theatre, by using a door which remains locked except for during a performance. A door that employees are not allowed to have a key for. So, unless that door happens to be open for whatever reason, it's a waste of my time to walk all the way up there just to have to go down to 3 and catch the elevator anyway.
So. Every day I take the elevator at least twice, if not more often. Lately I've had a tendency to purchase my lunch in the food court, so I am forced to take the elevator during the most busy time in Crown Center. The time when all the Hallmark employees are at lunch and every kid in the city who is part of a field trip is running around maniacally with a Fritz's hat on their head.
First of all, I am amazed by the number of people with good, working legs who use the elevator to go ONE FLOOR. The worst thing is Crown Center is equipped with not one, but TWO escalators. In my eyes, the elevator should only be used by people with large stroller contraptions, the elderly and handicapped, and those of us with business on the floors that the stairs don't go to. Regardless of my beliefs, hoards of people use the elevator to go one or two floors, when they could easily take the stairs or escalator. I often have to go from the 1st floor to the 5th floor, and it's no surprise when someone stops my journey at 2 to get on, only to get off at 3, effectively forcing me to visit 4 of the 5 floors when I'm just trying to get from top to bottom as fast as I can.
My second beef is with people who rudely stand just in front of the elevator doors while they wait for it to arrive so they can board, thus forcing those passengers trying to exit to squeeze past them. DO NOT WAIT IN THE TINY WALLED-IN AREA JUST IN FRONT OF THE DOORS. I am not going to wait while you board and then exit. The people inside have the right of way, that's just how it is.
Now, here is a special message for parents. Your kids are cute, and I'm glad you're having a fun day at thuper Crown Center, but corral those little turds. I completely understand that your child, at 2-6 years of age, may not have a grasp on elevator etiquette. SO TEACH THEM. It is not cool when I am in the elevator and the doors open and there are five munchkins racing to get in, practically knocking me over, and YOU DON'T SAY A DAMN WORD TO THEM. That, my friends, is an opportunity to educate a child on being polite and taking turns. Not an opportunity to maul a stranger. Obviously my parents took the time to tell me to stay the hell away from the elevator door until people have exited - it's just the friendly thing to do.
Finally, I work here. I know the building pretty well, and I'm more than happy to help you find where you're trying to go. If you ask me where the Crayola store is and I say it's on 2, DON'T PRESS THE 3 BUTTON. On the same hand, if you get in and I'm standing in front of the buttons and ask you what floor, it's because I'm happy to push the button for you - SO DON'T REACH IN FRONT OF ME or PUSH ME OUT OF THE WAY to push the button! I will do it for you. I promise I will get you to the right place - I have no hidden agenda, and even if I did, this place is only 3 floors of shopping - I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.
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RE: Elevator Etiquette
by Stephanie
Thu, Apr 17 2008, 12:47 PM
I would like to second everything you said there! I don't have the same elevator experiences, but can relate to some of them. At VFS TONS of the students would use the elevator to go one floor and it annoyed the bejeezus out of me! Especially as we were told during orientation specifically not to do this. The school was downtown Vancouver and shared a building with various offices. The really dumb thing was how the stairs weren't connected properly on certain levels...namely the parking garage below which also happened to be where I parked my bike in the lockup. So I pretty much HAD to take the elevator to the 3rd floor every day. Trust me, I was annoyed too and would much rather take the stairs. At any rate, tons of students did not bike...heck, the already walked, so why not walk from the 2nd floor (which was ground level for most entrances) to the 3rd floor??? argh! The whole button pushing thing was even more annoying there because we all had to enter a security card to access certain floors..so leaning over people almost had to happen. But if you take the stairs...sure, there's still carded entry, but at least you were less likely to be squishing people when going to one floor.
Elevator etiquette, along with many other kinds, probably should become mandatory classes in school. Yes, parents should teach it, but they aren't, and I'm tired of dealing with the inherent laziness. At Disney, we had one building with very unique stairs, and most of us took them all the time...for me, 4 flights. It's great exercise people, enjoy it!
Now, I could write an entire blogpost on stroller ettiquette at the Disney theme parks (particularly in crowds), but that's neither here nor there. Just know that all the Disney employees affectionately refer to it as "stroller derby".
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