I work in a six story building. My office - well, technically my cubicle - is in the basement, one floor down from the ground floor. My cube is in a secured area down there, since the group I work with handles the computers, laptops, monitors and other tech. Also down in the basement are a storage area, a couple of training rooms, a workout room, and a few other offices that aren’t staffed 24/7. The group I’m in is just three people including me. We do get visitors sometimes from other IT departments but it’s typically just a person or two. Unless there’s a training going on, or when people are working out (before and after work hours or lunchtime), the basement is usually sparsely occupied.
I try to take the stairs often, but I still take the elevator, too. Yeah, I feel bad taking it just one floor, either up or down; I rationalize it by saying I get plenty of exercise moving stuff around, biking or running. Most of the people who work in the building don’t ever go into the basement, however.
This is all a long way to set up a common annoyance for me, but instead of continuing my setup, let me set the scene. I get to work in the morning and walk into the elevator lobby. There’s someone already there, and they’ve pressed the up button. I walk around them (people tend to stand near the button) and push the down button. An elevator arrives and it’s going up; the white round circle lights, meaning this car is going up. The other person walks in, turns around, the doors start to close.
They hold the door, and look at me. Often, even before they can say anything, I’m irritated at them. “No, I’m going down,” I say, sharply, as if I’d said it many many times before. Sometimes, I add, “that’s why I hit the down button” though that’s usually just added in my head.
Or I’m already at work and for whatever reason I need to go up to an upper floor. I get on the elevator in the basement, hit the button for the floor I’m going to, and the car rises. Then it stops on the first floor and the doors open; someone had called the elevator from there. People turn towards the car, start to walk in, then stop when they see someone else inside. They pause because they’re socially instructed to let people off first (usually). They look at me.
“Yes, I’m going up, too,” I inevitably have to explain. “Please get on.”
People in the lobby only expect other people to be going up; they have mentally blanked out the basement. People in the lobby only expect to see people get out of the elevator cars because, obviously, they’re coming down from upper floors.
People don’t expect to see people coming up from the basement.
Not always, but often enough that these scenarios play out several times a day. And each time it gets a bit more irritating to me.
Clearly this is a tiny problem, Category B instead of Category A. If it were a tweet it would be tagged #firstworldproblem. I know this. If this is the most annoyance and anger I feel in a day, I am having an exceptionally good day. I still feel it, although I’m trying to train myself not to.
They’re just being polite. They’re just reacting to a situation based on their past experiences, which have over time led them to expect in building lobbies that people in the lobby are always going up, and people on the elevator are always coming down. It’s typical lobby behavior, and it’s true most of the time.
Except with me (and my two co-workers). And since we are the exception, we tend to only see the exceptions. It’s no wonder it’s an irritant. Right? Or am I just an angry person?
Wait, don’t answer that. I know I am an angry person. But I’m learning to tamp down the anger, or direct it at things more deserving of it. I’ll get to peace. Someday.
