Is it rude to walk past someone on the stairs?

[Helpmeup]

At my workplace, people don’t pass each other on the stairs. If someone reaches the staircase and there is already someone going up or down, they wait at the top or bottom for them to finish using the stairs. I don’t really understand why, it’s very wide and can probably fit 3 or 4 people next to each other, so the space isn’t the issue. Is it considered rude? If so, why?

I don't like crossing people on the stairs, which annoys my children at times!

The only exception is when I'm out shopping or in another very busy area with stairs because it would take a very long time for me to get down them if I waited for everyone else. I don't like doing it, but it's not practical to wait then.

I think it's a bit rude and I was also told it was bad luck.

Yes I think it's polite to wait if it means passing close by. It's about giving people some personal space.

I always wait for other stairs users in shops etc…
Not sure I would in work? Unless it was the boss.

I noticed this on a cruise ship last year, the stairs are mega wide and I’d estimate 50% of people refused to cross. I was baffled and asked DH to explain why and he said some people think it’s bad luck. Never heard of it before!! Seemed a bit bonkers to me.

There is an Old Wives Tale that its bad luck to cross on the stairs. The basis of this is, I believe, is due to infectious disease (social distancing). I always wait, it would feel very strange to cross paths with someone on a staircase. Not because I’m worried about infection but habit and politeness.

When people wait for me on passable stairs, I feel pressure to walk faster. Not great for my dodgy knee TBH.

I know that nothing bad will happen to me if I cross someone on the stairs.

It's just one of those silly things I was told as a child that I repeat back to my kids, but I know it's not actually true.

For me, it's more about feeling rude to cross people on the stairs.

Never seen it in a workplace at home yes, it’s a rule in our house, all from me, I had it ingrained in me it’s bad luck, same with putting hats on tables ( wanna throttle my DH every time he dose it) and new shoes on tables or work tops. If it was a standard narrow staircase I’d probably automatically wait, but a wide one that could hold 4/5 people abreast I wouldn’t think about it.

I will wait for someone to be off the stairs before I use the stairs at work.

Public stairs I just go, unless they are narrow.

It’s a mixture of being told as a child it’s bad luck (and these things stick whether you believe them or not) and giving people personal space, which is polite. Bit like holding a door open for someone and letting them through before you. Yes you probably could all have got through the door more quickly if you just went first, but it’s polite and considerate to let them through first. Tbh with how the world has gone recently, and a lot more entitled and rude behaviour about, the people that are still doing stuff like this are to be encouraged!

It's not rude if the stairway is wide enough to comfortably accommodate two people side by side. I'm not going to walk slow behind trundlebunnies if I don't have too.

I always thought, go up on the left and go down on the right. It’s always the way it seems to go anyway
I’d feel rude stopping and waiting for someone to come up- is it not suggesting they’re a very wide load and you don’t think you could possibly squeeze past each other? Hmmm….I am an over thinker, though

Is this a joke? If you go up on the left and down on the right then you're on the same side and constantly heading for a collision

This painting came immediately to my mind when reading about passing (or not) on the stairs. I have the print on the landing, the story behind it is something else. I'd get a small print of it and put it somewhere on those damn stairs TBH!

https://www.topartprint.com/artists/Frederick-Burton/art-print/3111/The-Meeting-on-the-Turret-Stairs.php

I only do that on a narrow staircase. I wasn't aware of the superstition, but I don't really believe in them - your colleagues would probably be annoyed with me as I would go anyway

I dont pass on the stairs at home only because someone told me it was bad luck when I was a child 🤣 in work wide stairs haven't got time to wait .

It's a religious thing too for some. I once started up the stairs as a housemate of mine was coming down, and she said cheerfully 'Ah, we'll never meet in heaven now!' Freaked me out tbh.

I do think it might only count in a domestic setting though. Not shopping centres etc

It’s bad luck to cross on the stairs.

?

Yes, I think you are correct, however if you open an umbrella indoors before going upstairs it cancels out the bad luck (assuming, of course, that you have not put a pair of new shoes on a table).

Fingers crossed, anyway.

The only place my cats ever hiss at each other or fight is if they pass on the stairs lol.

I was told the new shoes on the table one is inviting death into your house. It stems from when victorian people would lay the deceased out in the parlour room and buy new shoes for their final journey (and all the neighbours and relatives would come in to have a good look at the corpse).

It's why nobody used the parlour room much and the other downstairs room is called the "living " room as it was more for living in.

I was told it was bad luck to cross on the stairs. I work in a secondary school which luckily has up stairs and down stairs and rules to use them in most blocks but I live in a victorian house where the stairs are narrow anyway so nobody crosses on them.

That's the same side of the staircase. Same as if roads were drive on the left heading north and drive on the right heading south. You'd be crashing into each other. You have to walk and drive on the left regardless of which direction you are heading in in order to be passing each other in opposite directions.

It is reputedly bad luck to 'cross on the stairs'. An enemy can push ypu down, stab you and do you all manner of ill therefore 'bad luck'. Deeply ingrained social habit that few realise has an antique reason. Now it's just good manners.

This thread is the first time I've ever heard of it as a tradition, habit, superstition or good manners.

If they are narrow stairs, where two people can't comfortably get past without squeezing as most in domestic settings are, then sure it's just common sense. But any office building, hotel, shopping centre etc including the office OP is talking about are usually two people wide. Waiting for someone to go down before you can go up would be very odd in those circumstances. I've never seen it.

My mother used to say this; she was incredibly unreasonably superstitious.