Elevator oddities

Some days the highlight of my morning is watching how people behave when they're on or near elevators. (Okay, it's a pathetic life, but it's MY life.) Let me describe my qualifications for posting on this strange topic: I work on the 15th floor of a busy 18-floor office building. There are five elevators (well, six, but one is a freight elevator and GOD help you if you DARE press its call button and get on with just a cup of coffee). I frequently travel back and forth between the 13th, 15th, and 16th floors where my law firm has offices. At lunch, I generally leave the building (and most of the time return). In short, I use the elevator A LOT.

So after two years of observing folks, here are my musings . . .

Why is it that when people are on an elevator, and multiple floors are pressed, and someone gets off -- why is it that the person closest to the elevator control panel presses the button for THEIR floor to make the doors close? Do they think if they press the button for THEIR floor, the elevator will bypass the other three floors whose buttons are lit before theirs and magically stop only at their floor? Why not press the button for the next floor that's lit, that's where the elevator is going to stop next anyway. For that matter, why not use the "Close doors" button?

Why do people get on an elevator, knowing you're five steps behind them, and as you approach the elevator, the last thing you see as the doors close without you on board is their face staring at you - a blank stare, no desperate movement to press the "Open doors" button - heck, they don't even PRETEND to be nice, don't even attempt to appear frantically reaching for a button.

And why do elevator companies like the one who designed the elevators in my building line every single wall with metal so shiny it may as well be a mirror? Where are you supposed to look? You can't help but end up staring at someone, and then you feel self-conscious and end up staring up at the ceiling and feeling stupid for doing so, or staring at the floor and being mistaken for a shy and quiet person (okay, so I can't usually carry that off). I have two words for these companies: wood . . . paneling.

People don't usually talk to each other on an elevator. I can ride up 15 floors with two or three people getting off along the way, and not a word is uttered among us. Why is that? Is it because we're snobs? Stuck up? Shy? No, no, and no. I think it's because, well, they may be getting off at the 4th floor. Ten seconds is not exactly enough time to even say "Hi, how are ya" and maybe get a response. How meaningful is that conversation? We're both thinking, it's not worth my time or breath to say something to this person that I'll never see again and don't care if I see again.

However . . . maybe if more people took a chance, took the time, took that deep breath and said, "Good morning" to each other in the elevator . . . well maybe, just maybe, they'd put a smile on each other's faces, help each other face the day in a positive way, and peace and good will would come over the land.

Or maybe somebody'd just hold the @%^&@%@$ elevator door open once in a while.