AIBU about lift etiquette?

[trilliAnasTra]

Lots of people seemed to want a thread about lifts that go up and down, the sort that some people call 'elevators'.

I believe they were invented by an American (correct me, you know you want to) so technically the American name should be the 'correct' one.

So, which way do you face in a lift?

If people need to get off before you, how do you exit the lift while indicating "I need to get back on to go to floor 10, I only got off at floor 3 to make way for someone, please don't let the door shut before I get in."?

No idea, but I once met a child called Otis and naturally asked his parents 'oh, after Otis Redding?'

'No, we were in a lift and noticed the sign...'

get in, turn around, face door, stare at the numbers going up

when letting someone out turn sideways to indicate you are letting them past and watch them go

hand on door to prevent closing if re-entering

you face towards where you would expect it would open (dependant upon the type of lift) unless they have a lovely large mirror...you are then permitted to check your make-up/eyebrows/hair in said mirror..

I don't care what you do, as long as you don't fart.

what's bad is when people 'fart an run'...cut one in the lift just as they are getting off then you are left trapped with the smell but the culprit has escaped!!

If, as is the case in our local shopping mall (hate that word!), the stairs don't go up to the carpark above (they go up one floor and then no stairs, only lift), who takes precedence in the lift?

see what i mean?...

I look at the doors, but only if theres no mirror...

Someone did a study on peoples behaviour in lifts. If one person gets in and faces the door then others will. The same if people are facing the back then others will too. It has to do with people all wanting to be the same and not stand out. Ive always wanted to do but just a tad nervous that no one will and I will look like a loon.

People should make room for those in wheelchairs, people should walk up one flight of stairs rather then getting the lift (excluding those with pacels, injuries, etc) but unlike busses etc that are not very regular, lifts are and being disabled does not make you a priority and you can get the next one.

Here (Switzerland) one always says hello to other occupants when entering and goodbye when leaving, so if you hadn't said goodbye when you got out to make way for others then that would suggest you weren't properly leaving.

I find it really hard now to stop myself looking like a loon and saying hello/goodbye in lifts on our return trips to the UK.

aww Gipfeli I think thats very sweet and well mannered...where i live we always say thanks when you get off the bus..its so different in London I have to stop myself doing the same..

You should keep saying thanks to the bus driver anyway!

Lou Here is that lift(elevator) experiment. Its very funny as long as you arent the subect of the experiment

I got into a work lift once and there was already 1 man in it. I started nonchalantly looking in the mirror and adjusting my coat and scarf and he said to me "you must be very confident to look in the mirror and preen yourself in front of me"

I got into a work lift once and there was already 1 man in it. I started nonchalantly looking in the mirror and adjusting my coat and scarf and he said to me "you must be very confident to look in the mirror and preen yourself in front of me"

Ha ha - shame you didn't have a huge fart saved up for just the occasion.

Me? Fart?

Riven - You can't always tell, just by looking, who needs to use a lift. Someone might look healthy and have a condition that is agravated by using stairs have had foot surgery.

Sorry, should have said, "for example, have had foot surgery".

If it's a glass lift, you should face looking out the glass bit going 'wooohoooooooo!' as it goes down

I bloody hate those idiots who get in a lift to go down even though they know it's still going to go up a bit first! Even when it's nearly full! FFS!

Gipfeli , likewise in Spain it's the done thing to say hello and goodbye when entering and leaving a lift. We all seem a very cold lot over here once you're used to foreign lift etiquette!

Gipfeli Grüezi!

I think it's etiquette to go to the back to let other people in. However saying that I dread a double buggy coming in and trapping me in the back.

I absolutely love it when people cram in and lean on your buggy almost crushing the child inside/practically rest their shopping on your baby. Or, when people outside the lift press the button to go in the opposite direction before your lift has moved, engaging all the passengers in a door opening and closing farce.

Technical stuff about farts and lifts in the ninth heading here