A HUMOROUS MORNING

The standard for when I come in to work every morning is I follow the long trail of busy BAH employees from the parking garage to the building and then wait a couple minutes for the elevators. Upon getting in the elevator, I press my floor, and then stay in my claimed space. I follow all the elevator rules: 1.) No looking at anybody else and 2.) No talking. This morning was different – it was out of the norm.

I walked into the building and while usually, I share an elevator with just a couple other people, there were at least 7 or 8 of us crammed in there this morning. Usually there’s a couple of people in the elevator that have the same floor, but this morning, all 8 people pressed a different floor. That was different for me too. So we’re in there and people finish pressing their floors. No one is talking, no one is looking around, and no one is moving! That’s right – the elevator wasn’t moving. So there we are, 8 employees all standing quietly in an elevator that won’t move. I could tell there was about to be a panic. People started turning and mumbling, “are we not moving?” “what’s going on?” I just smiled and waited for someone to freak out inside a closed elevator with 7 other people in it. How funny would that be?! Then…one guy took charge.

After about 2 minutes, in an overly-excited tone, this one guy goes, “We’re not moving, I know how to fix this…” With that statement, he slaps the “doors open” button, looks at us and says, “…follow me” and then walks out of the elevator. It was like he was reenacting some crucial, dramatic, leadership, hero role in some war movie - “Follow me, I can save the day and the whole world! AAAHAHAHAHA!” So one by one, we followed our leader from our broken elevator into an open one right next to it on the right. Of course everyone got in their same position. We all pressed our buttons, shared a faint, under-the-breath laugh, and were on a vertical ride to our prospective floors.

When I got to my desk, all I did was laugh. I don’t know what was funnier – the wannabe hero or the fact that employees need a leader to get them to their offices. Ahh…the corporate life…