Carpetblogger

Sure, there's a lot going on in Azerbaijan but Carpetblog is a space for commentary on important topics, like elevator etiquette, not politics. Carpetblogger has no opinions on such issues.

Western organizations love to do trainings in places like Azerbaijan. If it were up to me, I'd give out grants for trainings on the proper use of and behavior in elevators.

Modern elevators are a relatively new arrival in Baku. Elevators in most Soviet-era apartment buildings are smelly, non-functional death traps the size of a coffin. The doors on elevators in government buildings slam shut like metal jaws and leave serious bruises in you're caught in between. It's better just to take the stairs. I'd be surprised if there's a functioning elevator outside of the Absheron peninsula.


With this many highrises being built, elevator etiquette is more important than ever!

This means that many locals -- especially those from the regions -- are not up to speed with the way elevators are designed to work.

I work on the 13th floor of a brand new, modern office building, so this is a salient issue for me. It has several hundred people working in it. It has only three tiny elevators that hold no more than six people at a time. It can take 20 minutes to get downstairs at 6 pm when the building clears out.

Setting aside the design flaws of a 17-floor building that has only three elevators (yet rents per square meter on par with major European cities), things would go much smoother at rush hour if people used the elevator correctly.

My colleagues and I have noticed that some locals summon the elevator based on where it is relative to where they are, not the direction they want to go.

For example, someone standing on the 13th floor wants to go down, but the elevator is on the 8th floor. He or she pushes the UP arrow to call the elevator up, rather than the DOWN arrow to indicate he or she wants to go down.

This causes the elevators to make unnecessary stops, since inevitably, other down-goers who know how elevators work, push the down arrow. Correcting this would save countless minutes of my time -- time that would be much better spent sitting in the traffic that's bottled up in front of an 17 floor office building with no parking. (Urban planning would be another potential area where the west could share some "lessons learned" and "best practices.")

Needless to say, summertime hygiene, smoking policies and appropriate cell phone use would have to be included in the training.

However, since this training has to be culturally appropriate and take into consideration "local mentality" (my favorite common phrase in Azerbaijan), the custom that allows women to get on first, even if there are 10 men waiting for the six person elevator ahead of her, must be respected.