Stupid, lazy people on elevators and escalators
I seem to be in a grumpy mood this week. I’m known to be a complainer, but events this week have just gotten my panties in a bunch. I’m going to be blunt here:
1. If you’re not carrying a bunch of cargo, or if you’re not handicapped, you have absolutely NO REASON to ride up or down 1 level in the elevator.
2. As with #1, WALK up or down the escalator if you’re able. The escalator is there to help disabled people or those with large packages.
People, STOP BEING SO LAZY!
It has become my personal mission to make people feel bad when they get on the elevator and ride up or down one floor. They’re wasting my time (by stopping on that floor to pick them up, and then dropping them off) and the company’s money (the power to run the elevator). I walk up 2 and down 3 when given the opportunity, as should everyone else when able.
Now before you chastise me, I use my best judgment before glaring at someone. If they truly look like they could have bad knees, or if they’re really obese and taking the stairs has become a risk, or if they look like they could cause problems with my career, then I bite my tongue. Also, if the stairs are just sketchy or much too far out of the way, I don’t complain.
How many of you are guilty of riding up or down one floor? Or blocking the escalator for people who really want to utilize those two limbs God gave us? Or are you bothered by these people as well? Leave your feedback.
I take the stairs every time I can. Where I work, the stairwells are locked though, so you have no choice by the elevator.
Just wondering if it’s okay if I carry my baby on the elevator. I’m not handicapped, but I don’t really consider her “cargo”, and a stroller can be quite unwieldy on an escalator or the stairs.
I take the elevator because I have a condition that is not obvious. Believe me, I wish I could avoid the scowls of people like you who assume everyone is able-bodied enough to take the stairs.
@Miguel and anonymous: I’m not doing this to judge people. Rather, I’m expressing my annoyance at the inconvenience when they appear able-bodied. Anonymous, I’m aware that conditions (such as yours) may not always be apparent, but I’m assuming that a large majority of these riders are fully capable.
And of course taking the elevator with a baby in your arms, with or without a stroller, is not going to bother me.
Hmm, I guess it’s a matter of perspective. I get ticked off when people ride the elevator three floors. If you can walk up two flights of stairs, you are certainly physically capable of walking up a third, or fourth.
Hey Clever dude you might want to hop over to http://financenewsheadlines DOT com (I won’t grace them with actually putting up their link from your site). They have put up this entire article (and others) with Kontera link ads on it.
Just thought you should know your content is being scraped….like mine.
i’m in agreement with anonymous. there is no difference between one floor and two floors that you ride the elevator up. also three floors going down. i’d be looking at yourself in the mirror, especially if you can’t make 3 flights of stairs and are complaining about people going 1.
i ride the elevator up one and down one flight, b/c i’m lazy and b/c it takes extra time to get back to the office, so it’s my break away. scorn me all you like, but there is nothing anywhere that stipulates elevators are for disabled and/or people with cargo.
what ticks me off is when people who are obviously not disabled and have disabled tags or stickers, have sports cars, and are parking in the disabled parking spots.
oh, i should also add that i’d take the stairwell if companies would make the stairwells more interesting to pass through. plus, i simply like the psychology of people in elevators, all looking straight ahead or watching the floor indicator lights, while trying to determine who farted.
While I *kinda* agree, my mom looks totally healthy standing there, but she has trouble with walking up stairs. Walking around she looks fine and normal, but hitting the stairs would slow her down and cause a ton of pain. I know you said you look at people to see if they have any ailments, but hers would be hidden from you. Trust me, I used to be like that, until she started having these problems!
Tim, at least you admitted you’re lazy. But why should I be required to hoof it up 3 flights just because I can, when you are trying to justify riding the elevator cause you like smelling people’s farts?
Basically, the elevator is a modern convenience. Sure, it’s required to transport very large items, or for those in wheelchairs, but what did people do in the 1800’s? Well, they didn’t have tall buildings, but they went up the stairs anyway because they didn’t have anything else.
There’s a difference between a convenience and a necessity. For you and me, it’s a convenience. For the maintenance guy hauling a half-ton A/C unit to the roof, it’s a necessity.
For my gram who had a stroke last year, it’s still a convenience. It would be painful and very slow for her to go up the stairs, as well as dangerous, but it’s still a convenience. People, both healthy and invalid, got through thousands of years living on mountains and in valleys without elevators or escalators. Would I still complain when I get arthritis in my knees? Probably not, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a convenience to help me out, not a requirement.
clever dude, i wasn’t trying to justify my riding up one versus your three. in fact you are the one who is pestered by the oner’s, not me.
um, the elevator was invented prior to the 1800’s, so in the 1800’s people took the elevator wherever there was one. oddly enough, the first skyscrapers appeared in the 1800s as well. of course, you could say the first skyscrapers appeared far earlier then that considering towns like Shibam in Yemen, but that is a different story.
i completely and utterly and profusely disagree with the distinction between convenience and necessity. people seem to think that we have to somehow forgo modern technology for the sake of doing so. technology is a great thing, and i am all for making my life easier. so i’ll take the elevator thankyou.
people living thousands of years in mountains and valleys also lived a lot shorter and more arduous lives. i don’t think we should have to apologize for technological advances. People these days seem to think that living in the stone ages would be so much more glamorous and better than now. I for one do not.
wow, harsh. aren’t there more worthy things to get angry over? is it that big of a deal if you have to wait 1 more minute to get to the floor you need to go? maybe you need to do something to chill. btw, taking stairs is a great way to ruin your knees!
Tim, I actually wanted to provoke some real thoughts on this matter, so I appreciate your input and banter. Assuming whether people are “able-bodied” can be dangerous, so maybe I should have just left that out of the article, but it’s too late now (well, never to late to edit, but I don’t like doing that). Basically, I don’t see physically fit people using the elevators up/down one floor; it’s the heavy people (I’m overweight too). That says something (but then again, I’m making another assumption)
Turned off: Nah, nothing more worthy to get angry over at this moment. I do agree that I need something to chill about though. However, going UP stairs does not ruin your knees. Going down can.
You should re-name yourself Rude Dude. I’m a subscriber and I found this post really offensive.
There’s no way that you can judge whether someone needs to take an elevator or escalator.
And even if you could, unless you own the elevator you have no right to say who should or should not use it.
Maybe you should just slow down a bit and chill out.
I hope the next person you grace with your righteous “glare” tells you to SHOVE IT!
one other thing: People did not sign up for your blog to hear your bad mood whining.
Most people can get enough negativity elsewhere.
Why don’t you try setting a better example for people than spreading more impatience in this world.
Some people have hard days or maybe a hard life. You don’t know what’s going on with them. But, oh, you want to “glare” at them because they are slowing you down. Stay home if you can’t take being around people or stop being a jerk.
If you want to rant, go start a negative rant blog where other negative people can commiserate with you.
Incredulous, I have been considered rude before. I say what I feel, and sometimes it’s the right thing, and other times I should have kept it to myself. I don’t see anything wrong with getting upset that an apparent able-bodied person wastes my time. No, it’s not my elevator, but it’s not theirs either. But it is my time. I take the elevator down 6 floors to save time, but waiting at an elevator for 30 seconds when the stairs are right there is just lazy and wasteful.
For example, we have a very long hallway and it takes 2 minutes to walk down it. I saw a girl at the other end waiting for the elevators. She was jumping around to waste time, which shows her knees are fine. She was wearing athletic shoes, which indicates she was prepared for walking that day. She got on the elevator, as did I, and the went down 2 floors. She seriously waited 2.5 minutes for something that would have taken 30 seconds had she taken the stairs. There’s no need for it. It’s just lazy and wasteful.
To your second comment, why did you sign up for my blog? To hear just want you want to hear? What’s the fun or education in that? I write what I think sometimes to hear others’ point of view. I can’t ask the people in my office for another perspective because all 10 of us think the exact same way about this elevator thing. I want to hear what all of you think. Personally, I think I was blunt, but not rude. If you’re being lazy intentionally, then fine, it’s your life. But when it affects me, then I am entitled to get involved in your laziness.
Incredulous, it is in fact clever dude’s blog, so if he wants to rant, you have the distinct option of ignoring it or not reading it. i for one just wanted to banter about. i am seriously lazy, but i am very fit, but still choose to take the elevator one flight…not because i need to, but because i want to.
now given that the elevator is a communal thing, when aboard it it no longer becomes your time. if your time is valuable, then you ought to better manage it to provide more sufficient time. now of course, you could take the stairs if you truly wanted to be on your own time. the elevator is not a personal space, so let us not try to act as if it were.
now if this were an article about ways to become healthier, then i will agree that taking the stairs is better towards this end.
I too suffer from an “invisible” condition. I take the stairs regularly, whenever I am capable, but when I am in severe pain, an elevator or escalator can make the difference between moving on with life or staying home in bed the following day.
I do realize that elevators weren’t always available, and if they aren’t, I will most likely go to a single-level store or stay home until I am able to cope.
(As a side note, I am actually quite terrified of elevators, having been trapped in one when I was a kid, so I really *do* take the stairs when I can.)
1. Sometimes people don’t know where the stairs are, eg., new, or visiting the building.
2. Sometimes the stairwells are creepy – personal safety may be something you rarely need to think about being an able bodied guy, but women might feel too vulnerable in an office stairwell. This is the same reason some companies put card readers on the women’s restrooms.
3. Huffing and puffing is not the most business like way to meet someone in the office. Maybe your out of shape person might take the ‘vater when he or she wants to make a better first impression.
Are you a tail-gater on the highway too? 🙂
Hey Clever Dude, you should rethink your stance on this. How do you know some able bodied person didn’t run 15 miles yesterday and would be in all kinds of pain if they walked a flight of steps? Its amazing that you think you can discern who is lazy just by looking at them. You must get a great rush from that self-righteous anger. Its normal to be aggrevated by little things in life, but a mature person can laugh at themself instead of lashing out at somebody who is just going about their day.
There is no anyone can look at someone and determine who is and isn’t disabled.
Even with the most refined powers of perception, you cannot deduce who is ill, who has arthritis, who is just recently had surgery, who is suffering from unbearable pain at that moment, who gets vertigo or gets nauseous on the escalator, etc. just by looking at them.
And you certainly can’t assume the majority are able bodied–10% of the American population alone suffers from chronic pain, and that’s just one of many, many disabling and restricting conditions.
This type of situation is exactly why we are told to not assume and not judge “a book by its cover.”
I can’t understand why you’d call people who you don’t know and whose health you know nothing of “stupid” and “lazy” based on the mode of transportation they chose.
Like one commenter said, many look perfectly fine, but are not. Not everyone who is ill, in pain, or disabled shows physical signs you can see; in fact I’d venture to say that most/many do not.
Disability and invisible illness are real, serious issues that affect people’s lives in very serious ways. And honestly, even if not one of the people you describe has a physical reason for their behavior, so what? You’ve a right to your opinion, of course, but I find this post very disenheartening.
Cleverdude, feeling the heat from losing subscribers? This post is useless because it has nothing to do with personal finance. Good thing there are other blogs out there because that is where I am heading. :::watches the AdSense revenue dwindle:::
I just had a knee replacement and take the elevator whenever possible – one floor or more. I feel a need to explain why I am on the elevator when walking would make more sense. Maybe in a couple of months when I have healed I will not be part of the walking wounded. Until then thanks for the guilt 😉
Tyler, no I’m not worrying about losing subscribers. I’m not doing this for subscribers, or for Adsense (which you seem to think I earn alot of). I do it to get things off my chest, and get others’ input on a matter.
So go off to another site if you wish. There’s hundreds of us PF blogs. I’m sure you’ll find a good home. But if you want someone to be timid and courteous, well, that’s not me. But you should probably view this link first.