Essential Elevator Etiquette

Elevators can be tricky – you’re not in them for a long time, yet there is so much room for uncomfortable situations. Unless you’re trying to find the next theme for your short story, these tips may help you avoid any and all unnecessary, cringe-worthy interactions you don’t want to have. Here are some quick guidelines to help you avoid as many awkward interactions as possible, and make your elevator experience hopefully pleasantly unmemorable every time.  

Check the Direction

Picture this: You have made it all the way back to your apartment, holding the pizza you have definitely already waited long enough to eat. Somebody, looking down at their phone, walks in on the third floor, only to look up as the door is about to close, and walk out. Not the end of the world, no, but it can get old. Make sure you are not the person getting in the way of a pizza-themed love story! Check the direction of the elevator before stepping in.

Don’t Force Your Way into a Crowded Elevator

We get it – everybody is trying to get somewhere, and half of us are definitely late. Elevators are already not the most pleasant place in the first place, but having someone breathing on your neck can make it that much worse. Know when to be courteous and wait for the empty car; you could be saving someone from full-body goosebumps.

Take the Stairs!

If you are trying to get to a lower floor and are in a condition to take the stairs, do it! It won’t hurt to help out the lines at the elevator, and you might be cutting out some time from your Stairmaster workout.

Wait For People to Get Out

Again, your eagerness to get to where you’re going is definitely understandable. If you’re really trying to optimize your time, stand back and make room for people to get off the elevator as fast as possible. The faster they’re out, the faster you’re in! Standing in front of the door may lead to an uncomfortable quickstep dance as you both step left and right in a desperate attempt to get past each other.

Move to the Back

Moving to the back when you get in the car ensures that as many people will get in it as comfortably as possible. It will also avoid awkward rearranging every time the door opens for somebody else. Don’t have people walking around you if you wouldn’t want to walk around them!

These simple tips will help you brush up on your elevator etiquette and make you the most pleasant person to share thirty beautiful, as-comfortable-as-it-gets seconds with. After all, the only elevator moment you should remember is that one time your crush was on it with you.

• elevator
• etiquette
• manners