Elevators

The elevators at mathematical department of the Berlin University of Technology where I work are known to be broken pieces of utter crap. Sometimes they stop at but don’t open the doors. The trick is to push the “Open Doors” button at just the right moment in these cases. But this is especially annoying in the evening when waiting for an elevator with only one elevator operating. When that elevator decides not to open the door on your level, youi can wait forever. You hear the elevator coming, hear the “ping” (the elevator has arrived), and the hear it leaving again. But the call button was not deactivated, so this process repeats itself indefinitely. (Or at least until the next morning when another elevator arrives at that level and deactivates the call button.)

Today the elevator had a whole new trick: I entered at ground level and pressed the “5” (where my office is). I was the only passenger. When the elevator reached the fifth level it didn’t stop, but rode ride on and the pressed “5” button was deactivated. So when we reached the top (8th) level I tried again. Same outcome … Don’t you just love it when your elevators have “personality”?