another COVID what would you do?

[Noah930]

I work in a large office building (13 floors). Yesterday at quitting time, and co-worker and I got into an elevator to ride up to the parking garage. My office is on the ground floor, so this was at the lobby level as the parking levels are above us. Another man (a fellow work-tenant of the building) had boarded the elevator car before us. Maybe he expected a solo ride. When he saw us enter, he quickly exited, muttering something about too many people. He apparently was on his way to the 10th floor (button already pushed on the panel). We were all wearing masks FWIW.

Just curious: so what's the etiquette? Were we offending the first guy who got onto the elevator? He hopped out of the elevator rather abruptly, so it's not like we had a lot of time to consider the etiquette at hand while this was transpiring. Should we have waited for the next elevator? The guy was going to the 10th floor; is it reasonable for him to expect an empty elevator car each time? Has he been like this for the past 6 months? My co-worker and I thought it was a wee bit weird.

[cabmandone]

Everyone has a different comfort level with this it seems. I'd have taken the elevator if everyone was wearing a mask or gotten some exercise if I wasn't comfortable with the number of people. Being there was someone already on, I probably would have waited for another ride or taken the stairs.

[Seahawk]

1968, Hong Kong Flu raged for three years:



Just having fun and off my last engineering meeting for the week.

FWIW, the the building owner and tenants need to establish some sort of order: No more than four people on an elevator at once, if within a floor of your destination, get off and take the stairs, letting other people get on, etc.

Common sense stuff.

My local Ace does it, so can the building owners and tenants.

[Noah930]

For clarification: there were only 3 of us in the elevator at that time. If it were a packed elevator, I would have been more sympathetic to the guy's concerns.

Stairs are not a bad idea, but at least in this particular building are not practical. At least not from the lobby, as the elevators are in the center of the building, but the stairs are at the two (east and west) ends, and cannot be accessed from the street level, as they empty out onto the sidewalk via a one-way door.

[vash]

I probably would have asked the guy if he was cool with me coming in.

[Jeff Higgins]

I simply ignore the hand-wringing ninnies and go about my business. I wear my mask in public. If some sniveling twit germaphobe is going to have a meltdown when I get into an elevator with him, that's his goddam problem. He can get off. I'm not going to, no matter how packed it is, and I don't care if I got on last. Enough is enough.

[Tobra]

He over reacted, forget about it. Maybe see if building manager could work out a policy.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Noah930

For clarification: there were only 3 of us in the elevator at that time. If it were a packed elevator, I would have been more sympathetic to the guy's concerns.

Stairs are not a bad idea, but at least in this particular building are not practical. At least not from the lobby, as the elevators are in the center of the building, but the stairs are at the two (east and west) ends, and cannot be accessed from the street level, as they empty out onto the sidewalk via a one-way door.

Down a 5hr energy and run like hell man!! Then when you beat the elevator look at those getting off and say "pansies"!

[vash]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

I simply ignore the hand-wringing ninnies and go about my business. I wear my mask in public. If some sniveling twit germaphobe is going to have a meltdown when I get into an elevator with him, that's his goddam problem. He can get off. I'm not going to, no matter how packed it is, and I don't care if I got on last. Enough is enough.

He didn’t have a meltdown. He left. No harm no foul. No judgement from me.

I don’t know if I told this story. I was fishing. So I wore that sun gaiter to protect my skin. Doctors orders. I hiked out with the gaiter. A mountain biker , on a 12 foot wide trail gave me a dirty look and brushed his sweaty body against me. I think he thought I was a sniveling twit germaphobe. He mumbled something about it. I ignored his ass and moved on. World doesn’t revolve around me. But I try not to focus on others.

[Bigtoe32067]

Id have accidentally tripped and fell against him hard enough to push him off his bike mumblzing my apologies and kept on trucking smiling under my gaiter the whole way.
Tony

[Jeff Higgins]

I would never go out of my way to make someone feel uncomfortable around me, nor would I ever challenge anyone who appeared to be uncomfortable around me. On the other hand, I absolutely will not change my behavior to accommodate someone like that. And yes, he did have a meltdown, albeit a minor one - When he saw us enter, he quickly exited, muttering something about too many people.

If people want to behave that way, great - they just won't get any allowances from me. I've had enough. This whole thing has now become vastly overblown. The hand-wringing ninny germaphobes are in their glory - the rest of us should pay them no more heed. They have had their day - this thing is rapidly disappearing in our rear view mirror, but they just can't seem to let it go.

I'll keep playing the game, keep masking up in public, but my patience is wearing thin. Like I said, I won't ever say anything, nor do anything to deliberately provoke anyone. But if someone starts in on me, or says something to me, I may very well lose my temper. I'm about down to my last nerve on this. I suspect I'm not alone...

[Cajundaddy]

People are funny and everyone reacts differently to this thing. I just think "viral load + time" and figure a brief elevator ride is probably pretty low risk if everyone is masked. One of my friends is an infectious disease specialist MD and this thing really has him spooked. He goes through an extensive procedure donning and doffing his PPE every day while treating C19 patients. No way would he share an elevator with 2 other people he doesn't know. He would have hopped off.

[cabmandone]

If I was the first guy on, I'd crank off a fart and have the ride all to myself.

[Major Dad]

Recently I stayed in a hotel with four floors. A notice as you entered the lift said Max two passengers. Normal capacity was six.

[nvr2mny]

I’m with Jeff on this as well.

[A930Rocket]

I’d get on and not worry about him.

You can’t expect one person to have an elevator, etc. to themselves.

[look 171]

I go out of my house to garage without a mask. Some of my neighbors out for a walk would wait about 30' away until I drive off or get out of my garage until I was back into house then they pass. One time, they ask if it was ok for them to pass because I was not wearing a mask. My garage is up front right up near the side walk. Its gotten to be too much. If they worry so much, stay home. I don't think you should do anything but stay in the elevator. Don't worry about it too much as long as you do your part. Its fine. Some people are just that way, make a big thing out of nothing.

[lsf911]

I think we should be careful and diligent to keep social distancing but I also think some people are taking it to the extreme.

The other day I came out of a 3 hour meeting where I had to wear my mask the entire time. Painful to say the least. I walked out with a colleague to the parking lot where we kept our 6+ feet apart, so we took off our masks. We are outside mind you. A very attractive lady comes walking down to the parking lot. When she gets about 15 feet of us, she gives me the eye roll, a big sigh and grabs her mask and covers her face with it as she walked by. Still at least 15 feet away. It bothered me for a bit.

[OldSpool87]

Originally Posted by Tobra

He over reacted, forget about it. Maybe see if building manager could work out a policy.

This. Building management and major tenants should have all been on same page as to entry screening, common area protocols and elevator capacities well before tenants returned.

[doug_porsche]

lets look at from a distance.

The guy getting off the elevator because he thought the elevator would be too crowed for his comfort level. Thats cool. it would have been very uncool for him to pull a Karen and forbid the riders with less elevator seniority to enter, but he didn't, he just choose to get off.

The guys comment. He should have used is inside voice, but still only about a 2 out of 10 on the Karen scale.

Sorry the comment stuck with the OP for so long, and thanks for asking for a bigger cross sections opinion, but in the big picture, just barely above white noise irritation level.