For 23-year-old employee Faisal Ardi, riding the elevators in his 33-story office building on Jl. Jend. Sudirman in South Jakarta feels like a life-endangering activity, especially when they are packed and making worrying noises.

“If I am about to be late, I have no other choice but to force myself into the already crowded elevators, or ride the freight ones,” said the man whose office is on the 22nd floor of the building that has 10 elevators.

He said employees could not risk being late as they would receive warning letters.

“In the company where I work, I will get a warning letter if I am late three times in two consecutive months,” he said. Faisal and his colleagues have to record their attendance no later than 8:30 a.m.

As the office building is relatively old, riding the elevators when they are full is like a nightmare, he says.

He hopes building management properly and regularly services the elevators. “Don’t only carry out maintenance after elevator incidents happen somewhere else,” Faisal said.

He recalled that the last time building management carried out maintenance on the elevators was in January, not long after an elevator carrying 17 people fell from the 11th floor at the BRI II building in Semanggi, Central Jakarta.

“We are talking about lives here, so please do not underestimate the importance of maintenance.”

Pieter Hadinata, a 23-year-old private employee who works at a company in another high-rise building in the Sudirman area, said separately that the director of his company had promoted his ideas about elevator etiquette to his employees.

“He always tells us to do things like holding the elevator’s doors open to let people in, helping to press the elevator’s buttons for them, and so on,” said Pieter, who works in a human resources department.

In his office building, people queue to get inside the elevators and let others exit first, he said. “During my time working here, I have never seen any uncivilized behavior from people using the elevators,” he added.

Last Friday, an elevator incident occurred at Blok M Square shopping mall in South Jakarta when an elevator fell to the basement from the seventh floor due to overcrowding. The elevator, which was designed to accommodate only 24 people, was carrying 31 when the incident occurred at 12:45 p.m.

Twenty four people were rushed immediately to Pertamina Hospital in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. Eleven of them had to undergo surgery after suffering bone fractures.

Acting Jakarta governor Sumarsono said on Monday at City Hall that the Jakarta administration would soon evaluate the elevators in all high-rise buildings in the capital, especially those managed by city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya, to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

The administration will also review the companies conducting elevator maintenance at the buildings. If the companies are found to be working unprofessionally, the administration will give a recommendation to building-management companies to use only professional services.

“We will appoint credible companies to carry out the maintenance,” Sumarsono told journalists. (dea)

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