Moderator’s Note: Exercising my moderatorial powers to move this thread over to IMHO.
IMO, you have the machine for 30 minutes once you start using it.
If nobody is around, you have bonus time. If, after your 30 minutes, someone walks up to the machine, it should be given to them. To not do so makes you a hogger!
I agree with what others have said: if you’ve been on it for half an hour, and someone’s waiting, yield to them. If no one’s waiting, keep going to your hearts content.
“Do the right thing.” – Spike Lee
You know what it is ethically. If you want to find a logical excuse, you probably can, but you will have a fit body and an off-center mind.
My reading is that, after 30 minutes have commenced from the start, you should look around the room and see if anyone is waiting. If so, you should vacate your machine. From that point onwards, as soon as there is anyone waiting, you should vacate your machine.
But the management own the machines. They set the rules.
Therefore the ‘right’ answer is what management says.
Anyway as Zoe said, the morally correct thing is: “Do the right thing.” – Spike Lee*.
In international quickplay chess, you can construct a set of rules to cover various situations, some of which involve the referee in complex decisions.
Boris Spassky (former World Champion) said the simple alternative law was “We are all gentlemen.”
*No relation!
Another vote for “if someone is waiting for a machine, please observe the 30 minute time limit”. Doing otherwise makes you a dick.
Ok, but what if, upon seeing that no one is waiting, I vacate my machine for one second, and return to it. Why do I have less of a right to that machine then someone who wanders up five seconds later?
I would interpret it your way. If I walked in and had to use the treadmill I would expoect that after 30 minutes (if I were stupid enough to wait that long) I could tell someone to get off if no machine had been vacated.
Because you’ve already used the machine for ~30 minutes.
The rule is poorly written, but as has already been stated, you know what you’re doing is selfish. Why do you keep persisting in coming up with excuses.
Because you’ve already had the machine for more than 30 minutes that day and presumably the person waiting has not.
<geeky aside> The problem is comparable with job scheduling in a OS. I don’t have my OS notes with me but I remember that one such scheme worked roughly like this where a job is place in a first priority queue when first started up and is then demoted to a 2nd priority queue after a certain period of time. Jobs in the 2nd priority queue only run when the 1st prioirty queue is empty</geeky aside>
Ok, let me try an analogy. I go to the library and get a book. There are 10 copies of said book. I check out copy #1 for 30 days. When I return on day 30, I return the book, though I haven’t finished it. I walk to the shelf, and lo and behold, copies #9 and #10 are available. I check out copy #9. I return in a week, and see that there are no copies on the shelf. Am I wrong to keep the book for the remaining 23 days? Is that selfish?
Ok, we can also go with this analogy (though it is very possible that I’m misunderstanding it, as I’m not that smart…)
The job in the 2nd priority queue begins (job A) to run as the 1st priority queue is empty. Before that 2nd priority queue job finishes, the 1st priority queue fills with a new job (job B). Does job A have to stop and allow job B on?
I really, really don’t want to sound obtuse. I firmly believe that I’m right, and want to understand if I’m wrong and why.
Exercise is something I am only familiar with in a theoretical sense, like walking on the moon.
But for most exercise machines, except maybe treadmills, if you are using them correctly, isn’t 30 minutes pretty much the outside limit before exhaustion? What kind of machine are you talking about and how much time do you need? (Personally, I think your 30 mins. should start when somebody else shows up to wait, but I can see the argument for playing nice with others, too.)
Actually I think a better analogy is that you borrow a library book and as you enter the library to return it you overhear someone asking for it. The librarian tells them there are no copies available, so you quickly walk out instead of returning the book.
(I don’t know why you say above ‘even though you haven’t finished it’. You’ve had 30 minutes of exercise - how much do you want?!)
Yeah, actually, my 60 minute morning run is my short run for the day. I have an evening run of between 90 and 120 minutes. I’m training for my 15th marathon, and I have a pretty lofty time goal of finally getting under 3 hours.
I need to do the short run on the treadmill because the nature of the run is variable speeds that are very difficult to keep track of on the road.
Well, this is really my question. Do I have to “quickly walk out” or can I hold my head up and say, “Hey, whether I had it before or not, I was on line before him.”
I mean, otherwise, how long is an appropriate amount of time to wait before taking the book out again? Can I come back tomorrow and take the book and not be selfish, or can I never have it again?
Same thing in the gym. If I do my 30 minutes, lift weights for awhile and come back 60 minutes later, and there is one available machine, am I allowed to use it even though I’ve already done 30 minutes today? If so, why is this different than if I just do 30 back to back workouts (assuming there is no one waiting after the first 30 minutes).
Again, I absolutely swear I’m not being obtuse. I’m asking because I consider my self quite selfless and want to know if I’m being selfish, and be made to understand.
I think the answer to this is; have you given others fair opportunity to use the equipment/book etc?
Management have defined a reasonable use of the equipment as 30 minutes. At the end of this time, you should (in all fairness) give someone else a go. If other machines are empty, there is no need to do this. If after 30 min others are waiting, the fair thing to do is to get off, and allow a reasonable time for others to take the opportunity to use the treadmill. You can then queue, and restart the clock on your timing - your 30 min starts again as you have given others a go.
Most people won’t have to cope with this situation as their usage is usually under 30 min - you are doing something unusual in terms of your training, so you should be particularly aware of how this affects others. As others have said, you know what is the right thing to do - just be considerate.
And count yourself lucky - at my gym the peak hour time limit is 15 min.
Ok, so I THINK I agree. In my gym, there is an unwritten rule of where one waits for a treadmill if they are all occupied. What I have been doing, is if my 30 minutes is up, I see if anyone is waiting there. If not, I start my clock (not literally, but in my head) for another 30 minutes. If someone is waiting, I vacate, and get in line again. Is that reasonable?