#1: Elevator Etiquette
Come on, be honest. Is there anything that pisses you off more day-to-day than being stuck in the WaMu center elevator lobby bank at one of the busy periods - you know the times, when you can’t even get past the security gates to get into the elevator lobby. Listening for five to ten minutes of people bitching about how long the elevators take, how it’s wasting “their time”, how they don’t understand why it takes so long, why can’t WaMu be more efficient, etc, etc - and then watching those same people get on your elevator and hit the button for floor 19 when floors 20 and 21 are already hit (I’m using Marketing floors as an example because I can’t stand the way they spell whoo hoo in our ads, but this applies to all the three-floor internal-stair bundles and all the elevator banks). Do these people not connect the dots that stopping on Every. Single. Floor. on the way up is directly correlated to the length of the wait in the lobby? Do they seriously place more value on themselves not walking down/up a flight of internal stairs vs wasting 20 seconds of the lives everyone in that elevator and everyone down in the lobby? Or are they completely oblivious to this? Either way if these people constitute the employee pool at WaMu - are the recent earnings really that shocking?
I even have no sympathy for instances where you’re going to floor 21 and the floor 19 button is hit and you now need to walk up two flights of internal stairs. Seriously if you’re not on crutches, how hard is it to walk up or down some stairs? And to be frank more than half of these people could use a little light cardio anyways. Hell it’d probably even reduce our health insurance liability ever so slightly and be accretive to earnings.
Since it’s too late to rebuild the elevator banks and run them efficiently like the EET (or whatever that building on 3rd ave is called where you punch in your floor, and the system tells you which elevator to wait for) could someone in corporate property services PLEASE reprogram the elevators to only stop once every three-floor bundle. So say if 20 is hit, someone wants to go to 21, the 20 becomes unlit and anyone trying to get off on those three floors would just have to walk down from 21. This would free up a little incremental time for each and every person, get us all a little more in shape, and kill the dead time in the lobby. And since we are a fair, caring, human and unprofitable institution we could even set aside one elevator per bank for the people who are unable to use the stairs, and that elevator could stop at Every. Single. Floor. on the way up.
If just one person reads this and decides to change their elevator habits, I will consider this entire blog venture a success.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 tom // Jul 24, 2008 at 9:30 pm
i think you should make your next blog on the horrible outsourced CS in the phillipens (sp?) or about how rotellas blog has been censored down from somewhat honest discussion to just a wamu kool aid session. thank you for this website….the public needs to know the truth about wamu.
2 EnjoyedWamu // Jul 25, 2008 at 6:05 am
What happened to the Rotella blog? I used to read it every day.
3 tom // Jul 25, 2008 at 7:59 am
its turned into nothing more than a corporate kool aid session.
4 Tulip // Jul 25, 2008 at 10:45 am
#2 - Lighting!!! Lights are barely on during the day, and start turning on and off randomly starting at 5. I’m going blind!
5 What the hell is a Wamullian // Jul 25, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Poor Karen you can hear the regret and dread in her post when she shuts someone down. How would you like to have that job right now.
But about the elevators…
Ok, so the engineers blew it thinking that 6 elevators would service 14 floors. I can accept that. The things that really chap my arse is when I am getting off the elevator(ot trying to) and some self absorbed jerk charges on before the door even opens fully. Cumon folks, relax this company attempts to sucks enough humanity out of us as it is we don’t have to stop being kind to our fellow Wamulians. I hate to sound like a sunday school teacher but… “If you wouldn’t… ”
Here is the other thing that really irks me about the elevators. I am riding up and the doors open on the 23rd floor — 10 people that have just finished a meeting get on and some ass pushes the button for the 24th and at least half of them get off?? WHY??
I’m with Flash. Let’s institute a self imposed, 3 floor, I’m not lazier than a three toed sloth rule, and take advantage of the work out facilities that WaMu has provided for us ie. take the stairs once in a while.
6 disappointed wamulian // Jul 25, 2008 at 8:31 pm
How about the people who take the elevator to go up or down just one floor…..TAKE THE STAIRS!!
7 johnjohnson // Jul 28, 2008 at 1:30 am
crutches or wheelchairs are the only excuse for this bs behavior. I’m sooo glad it’s not just me noticing this crap.
8 wamullian // Jul 28, 2008 at 4:00 am
i think you should make your next blog on the horrible outsourced CS in the phillipens (sp?) or about how rotellas blog has been censored down from somewhat honest discussion to just a wamu kool aid session. thank you for this website….the public needs to know the truth about wamu.
Boy did you hit the nail in the head about that that one….. however it is more than just that you have to work in a call center to know…..the online instructions are hardly ever updated,They stress about reading your OI’s and any subject you search in them will pull on the avaerage 2 pages of answers none of which say the same thing……hell even if you go to your manager none of them can tell you the same thing.As for getting anything done about it LMAO……try blogging about it….that’s too funny because then you have operational managers coming to you and asking that you take it off immeadiatly …and if you have any questions or concerns you can go to your managers or to them (in others words…don’t blog if you want to keep your job).Everybody complains about Manilla,Costa Rica,ect… but because we pay them next to nothing they are not going anywhere even if they place stop payments on debit card transactions or misquote SL causing od charges…still in WAMU’e eyes it’s cheaper to keep her.
9 Anonymous // Jul 28, 2008 at 8:43 am
nah
10 Jorge // Jul 28, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Please bring back the other posts! If you’re somehow discovered and then lose you’re job, you’re clearly a good writer and should pursue that career. Plus, unemployment benefits might last longer than your paycheck the way things are going. Even though WaMu doesn’t seem to care about the optics of its decisions (hiring legal from Bear Stearns and credit risk from Countrywide), it’d be really dumb to fire you for speaking your mind - you have a popular blog and would likely continue to use it to their chagrin. There’s a lot WaMu could do right but not with the current management. Anyone with a S, E, or C at the start of their title should go with little more than severance — and that’s being generous. The remaining employees would quickly see what work needs to be done (innovating and saving money) and what doesn’t (making reports and thinking with PowerPoint)!
11 money // Jul 28, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I find it funny that KK and Co. have NEVER remotely acknowledged any fault of their own.
How dirty are their mirrors???
12 ed // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:13 am
What an idiotic post….get off the elevator on a close floor and walk to save time? Do you live in the land of Oz? Perhaps you can devote your blog time to calculating the time wasted walking around to the time saved in the lobby…
I am surprised the arguement for doing this wasn’t to stop global warming.
13 Jorge // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:23 am
What about the fat people (or worse the not fat people) who take the elevator one floor? I agree this whole thing is a rather inane post because WaMu has much bigger fish to fry but it is kind of silly that people can’t walk up or down a floor.
14 Fred // Jul 31, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I don’t work in this WaMu center, but I can certainly comment on your elevator blog post, however, from a typical Dilbert-wannabe cube dweller.
I’m very sorry if my getting off at my floor somewhere below yours on the elevator inconveniences you. I’m ashamed that it takes you an extra 15 seconds to stop at my floor. I’m horrified that there isn’t a reserved elevator with your name engraved on a little brass plaque with a personal attendant that pushes the button which takes you straight to your cube.
I know that would be nice and I’d like one too but that’s not how life is. We share resources. You breath the air that I breathe. If this offends you, tough. This world is about cooperation and effective use of resources, not about being selfish and demanding that people get off the elevator and walk up/down 2+ flights of stairs just so you aren’t inconveninced. I’ve lived on the top floor of an elevator bay too. Yes, it’s frustrating when it stops everywhere, but that’s the roll of the dice. Perhaps in your next job you’ll be the very first floor of the elevators and smile sympathetically when 2/3 of the buttons are pushed on the way up.
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