Originally Posted by
LTBoston
Ha. This isn't really a DYKWIA elevator story so much, but it's a cautionary tale about elevator etiquette.
The health club I used to belong to had two elevators to the lobby, both of which were excruciatingly slow. So getting one during the morning rush was always a dicey proposition. One morning I lucked out and got one straightaway. Just as the doors were closing, I notice a guy rushing to make it inside, so I kindly held the door open for him and he made it on.
Just before the doors closed again, someone else rushed up and got on just in time. Then someone else. And someone else. This went on about a dozen more times - every time the doors were about to close someone else would rush up and wedge themselves on. In all, it was a good five minutes of false starts and abrupt stops before we finally, slowly, lurched our way downward.
At one point, I looked at the original guy I'd let on and said jokingly, "This is all your fault." He just laughed ruefully as yet another person wiggled her way in.
There is a bank of 4 lifts where I used to work where people would do this, except the lifts weren't modern ones. It became apparent (to me only it seemed) that when the doors were opened and closed multiple by "just one more + just one more ad nauseam" person, it would cause the lift not to move. If the doors were opened and closed about 4 times, I would step out and get into one of the other lifts. It was always quicker than waiting for other people to realise the lift wasn't going anywhere, as least not till someone came along to reset it.
Six years I put up with other people not realising what happened when the doors were interfered with like this. I bet it's still happening... people can be so stupid.