Office Manners: The Elevator

Manners can start on the way up.

Last week I watched helplessly as the elevator doors closed on someone in a wheelchair. I was too far away to be of any help as she drove as quickly as she could toward the open doors in her motorized chair.

What was even worse was the woman standing inside the open elevator, watching stoically as the handicapped woman attempted to board. She did not locate and press the “open” button. She did not slide a hand in the doorway to hold the doors. She remained passive, thinking “Gosh, I wonder if she’ll make it in time,” and got her answer as the woman was slowly smashed.

She later apologized. “Gee whiz, I thought the sensors would see you.” But still. Would it have been that much more trouble to hit the “door open” button and help a sister out? You know, just in case?

Rude people bug me. If they bug you, too, post my Ten Commandments of Elevator Etiquette in your office elevator. (They won’t know it was you!)