This happened two years ago, back when I was working at a place whose name is a misnomer. I arrived at the building where I was working a bit late than my usual time (that is, an hour before start of work). A lot of people were standing at the lobby, huddled in groups. Approaching the elevator, I found out why – all the elevators were offline for repairs. The building administrators assured in the memo released the night before that the elevators would be online within a hour.

I wasn’t able to read the memo beforehand, since I worked an every-other-day shift back then. And since it was just 10-20 minutes before shift starts, waiting was not an option. The fact that the office was on the 14th floor meant a long climb.

The climb was testament to my state of health back then. By the 10th floor, I was huffing and puffing, my legs refusing to take another step; there must be some credibility in the mind-over-body philosophy or else I might have given up at that point.

So I got in via the service stairs door. There was an RFID terminal there, so I tapped my card, and entered. I was sweating like a pig, and so I went to the toilet, using a roll of paper towel, and dried myself.

After that, I went to my little kingdom in the office, and surprised to see another officemate, who just arrived. She appeared as if she exerted no effort – she used the elevator.

And to add insult to injury: apparently, the RFID at the service entrance does not log the time when an employee enters. So of course I was “late.”

PS:

Since most buildings in the Philippines do not have a 13th floor, how many floors are there in a 30-story building?