WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS

The elevator is a great source of consternation for some people and you can count me in as one of those. Since I live in high-rise apartment building, using the elevator is a common occurrence for me. At a minimum, I use the elevator at least twice a day. Absurdly, we only have two elevators in my buildings for over 30 floors. Sometimes you can be waiting for an elevator for a long time and once you get one, your ride up or down might be lengthy as it picks up or lets people off.

You can gain precious seconds during the elevator trip, however, if someone uses the “door close” button once someone has left the elevator or has entered the elevator. The elevator is programmed to keep the door open for a generous amount of time to allow 99% of users to enter or leave before it needs to close. All this extra time is wasted time unfortunately as everyone in the elevator car just waits for the doors to close. Thankfully, most people are courteous enough to press the “door close” button to move things along. Here’s where things get me a bit annoyed.

I notice that people sometimes, by way of proximity, are the defacto “door close” button operator. As the elevator goes up or down, people are being let off or getting on. This single person then pushes the “door close” button to get the elevator moving more quickly. It has come to my attention some of these people have no idea how an elevator works. There is a sensor that detects if something or someone has broken an invisible plane that is located at the threshold of the elevator door. If the detector sense a break in the plane, the “door close” button doesn’t work. Numerous times I’ve seen people hit the button way too early as people are still tripping the sensor. We then just sit there with the damn door open for several seconds, as if the button wasn’t pressed at all. What’s worse is that these people don’t understand what just happened and they don’t even bother pressing the button a second time. Why don’t these people hit the button a second time? Why would they just sit there, dripping in their failure, and not try to fix things?

Every time I see this I’m tempted to tell them they pressed the button way too early and they should try again but I don’t. I just look at them with disappointment. I wish I could say something but I would look anal retentive. Am making a big deal out of this when this is something minor? Oh probably but I’ve seen this way too many times for me not to mention it.