I have no experience myself, but I don’t much like tall hotels even, so I’d hate to work on a 30th floor.
Anyone?
Is there some floor limit beyond which nobody really likes to work? I hear that great parts of the Sears Tower are empty.
I have a height phobia outdoors, but I wouldn’t have a problem working on the 30th floor of somewhere. Too bad I’m only on the 2nd floor at work…
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
Gee, top floor for me would be 3rd. I have a slight fear of heights but in a tall building I’d be more concerned about getting out if there was a fire. I’ll bet the view would be bitchen though! But so’s the view off the Grand Canyon…
Best!
Byz
The fire would be a concern. Also, isn’t it going to be a little more difficult at lunch time to go out, if even one elevator is out of service. Or just going to run some errands would take more time.
A related topic: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003542.html
sunbear sez…
sunbear,
I used to work in a 32 story building. It had 12 elevators. Six elevators were for floors 1-19, the other six were for floors 20-32. I never worried about fires too much. I don’t think there’s too much flammible materials in office buildings these days. You sure as hell couldn’t burn cubicle city, that’s for sure. We would still take quarterly or semi-annual fire drills. Yes, it’s just what you’d expect. I was on the 25th floor, and we would have to walk down all 25 floors. Ugh.
Enright3
Well, I have a pretty big fear of heights. Unfortunately, I am also 6’9 which means everyone feels the need to make a lame joke about that irony. But, while in college I did work on the 51st floor of a building in downtown Atlanta and it usually didn’t bother me. If I look out of a window towards the horizon, no problem. If I were to get up near the window and try to look down at the street below, big problem.
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
Most people I know care less about the actual floor and more about how far they are above the first stop on the elevator bank. No one likes to be at the top of a “local,” preferring to be at the bottom of an “express.”
My friend over on 103 at 1 WTC doesn’t like it. Primarily because it takes freaking forever to get in and out of the building (IIRC 3 elevator trips, including one “local”). Forget cigarette breaks. Secondarily because every time some bonehead tries to blow up the place (once and counting), it’s a very long walk down.
I’m on 22. The express elevator doesn’t stop till 17, and 18-20 are vacant because of some legal dispute no one can explain to me. So it’s a snap most days. We’ve had two evacuations, one of which involved a lot of smoke in the stairwells and the emergency lights not working. That was less than fun.
Here’s another thing to think about.
I used to work in a high-rise building in Southern California (now I’m on the first floor). As part of the earthquake preparadness training, they advised us to have food and water supplies at our desks. After a large earthquake, if the elevators were non-functional and the stairways collapsed or were filled with rubble, we could have been stuck in the building for days before being rescued.
La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry
Manhattan: never thought about the smokers. There’s no smoking area in the entire building?
Myself I’m okay as long as I don’t go out on a balcony; I get an incredible urge to begin chucking stuff off. Not to hit people/items, or anything like that… It just seems like a REALLY good idea…
Yeah, but it does suck having to downstairs, out the lobby to have a cigarette. I live in California, where it’s even illegal to smoke in a bar… 
Legally, companies can create indoor smoking areas in NYC. But some companies go beyond the law, including my friend’s (and mine, for that matter).
Building owners, subject to the provisions of existing leases with tenants, may also ban smoking. The WTC is not one of those buildings, but since it’s owned by the Gummit (Port Authority of NY and NJ), stay tuned.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
OK, how’s this: My company has just re-located to the top (40th) floor of an office building in downtown Manhattan. Beautiful place, with terraces outside the corner offices (!).
Now, as Mullinator said, I don’t have a problem looking out a window (we have some very nice views), but some of the terraces scare the hell out of me (low railings).
Oh, and guess who was selected Deputy Fire Warden? That should be fun. We haven’t had a fire drill in this place yet, but IIRC, NYC Fire Dept procedure is to use the stairs and re-enter the building two floors below the fire floor. Of course, being on the top floor, my guess is we’d be told to stay put unless the fire was immediately below or on our own floor.
As far as the elevators are concerned, it’s like Enright3 and manhattan said - the double bank and “express” cars cut down on the time. Although I always know I’ll be the last one out.
Having just had lunch at the Signature Room on the John Hancock’s 95th floor. I fail to see the appeal of working up so hight. I mean the view is OK but you really can’t see anything being up so high. Once you get above like 25 floors or so you lose the individuality of the view.
BTW the Signature Room food is quite good.
Well, I work on the 20th floor, and the main problem is the nearly overwhelming urge to jump . . . Especially now, when we’re closing an issue . . .
The windows actually open?
I was googling my phobia and look what I dug out.
I have no idea what this site is about and just registered to share my excitement LOL
After about 2 decades this thread was posted, we have many and many more tall buildings been build around the globe. I am seriously wonder why nobody seen to have the same issue with me, and I’m glad to see I’m not along here.
My question for you, if any of you still see this, are how bad is your fear/anxiety and how do you cope with it.
I was able to stay in around 20+ to 30th floor when I started to realize I have this fear. In a year’s time while I was trying to managing my fear and adapt to the high floor environment, I have a few times my anxiety was out of control and just wanna crawl to the elevator. For me the fear doesn’t all come from the view or the elevator ride, but more of a combination of fear in high floor itself. I’d constantly thinking the balcony fence isn’t high enough, the glass window looks crisp, and I can’t physically run down 20+ flies of stair in case of earthquake that would collapse the building in seconds.
I started to avoid go up that high but I desperately like to change that because my future job is mostly likely in a high office. My psychologically safe height is like 4-6 floors, with slow adaption I think I won’t have problem stay in anything under 10th floor, beyond that I think I can’t escape from the stairs in case of emergency.
Welcome to the Dope, we have fun here.
As a newbie I’m pleased you noticed it’s a VERY zimbie thread. Many of the posters may not even post anymore.
But check out the other forums, read the rules, and ask questions.
I myself am very afrain of heights and wouldn’t like to work high up in a tall building.
To find out what we are all about I could point you to a couple of threads that have links to classic threads, as we judge them, on the board.
But if you want to read one of the funniest old threads EVER on this board check this one out.
Zombie, zimbie, or not, go back to the first posts in this thread, posted pre-9/11, and read them now, post-9/11.