I work in a law firm that is spread over five levels. Fortunately, most of the time I am able to take the stairs to wherever I need to go. Unfortunately for me, as part of my job I have to wheel around a trolley full of milk, biscuits and cleaning products. Getting this trolley up the stairs is not so easy. So, for the two hours it takes me to stock and clean the firm each day, I am forced to take many elevator rides. Often, a few seconds in an elevator can feel like a lifetime.
While I can handle the little jokes about the biscuits, I cannot stand: body odour, people who smoke and bring the smell of their last cigarette into the elevator where it lingers for the rest of the day, women who whisper about Trudy in accounts (that's right, I can hear you!) and last but not least, the good ol' fashioned akward elevator silence. I still have not figured out how to make this silence any less akward. There is the akward silence that follows a coy hello, the silence when the other person in the elevator refuses to even look at you, the silence that follows a bad joke, and the heavy silence that comes when you walk into the elevator and interrupt a conversation; the silence becomes more and more akward as the elevator occupants stare at you impaitenly until you exit the elevator.
These are just a few of things I dislike about the elevator. Until I can figure out the perfect way to tackle this akward social situation, I will continue to take the stairs thankyou very much.
Image from here.
