We’ve all been there, you see your boss coming and are desperately willing the lift doors to close so you don’t have to spend the next ten floors talking finance projections.
But frantically pressing the ‘close doors’ button is apparently not going to help the perilous situation at all.
A lift expert has now revealed that the close door button is in fact a fake and it will do nothing to speed up the doors and save you from potential awkward small talk.
Karen W. Penafiel of the National Elevator Industry told The New York Times, that the close-door features have effectively been disabled for the last two decades.
Disability legislation, in particular the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, requires that all doors stay open long enough to allow those in a wheelchair, or with a walking stick to comfortably get in.
So the close door button was made redundant in order to ensure these people weren’t caught short on time.
Instead of just removing the functionality, you might be wondering why they didn’t just remove the button entirely?
Penafiel explained that the button does perform its intended purpose if you have a special key – used by firefighters and maintenance workers - but for the average person, don’t bother.
Don’t panic though, the open-door buttons definitely do work.