>In the VFP Zone someone posted "this might be a stupid question, but..." and of course everyone says, to encourage the OP, "there are no stupid questions."
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>Well.....
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>I work in a hospital. We have lots of staff who know the place well, and lots of visitors who get lost easily, as well as being stressed about why they're here. Most everyone here in the hospital uses two elevators (lifts) to get to their work area, so we are all well versed in elevator etiquitte. Sometimes when the elevator stops at at the street level pepole will get on just because the door opened, without checking whether the elevator is going up or down, so if there are people present when the door opens, I always ask which way they're going.
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>The other day I was getting on at the bottom floor, along with a couple of other people, and as one of the first ones on, I was holding the door open for the others. So, there were about 4 people in the elevator and a couple of other people came along and were staring at the elevator, probably wondering if there was room. I asked them, "Are you going up?"
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>One of the MDs in the elevator poked fun at me because there was nowhere to go but "up," but really I meant, "Are you wanting to get on the elevator? If so, please get on so we can go up." I had never considered the other interpretation of my question, but I got my smile for the day.

I would agree with your response to those persons who were standing outside the elevator. Who knows what they wanted to do? Why not be polite and ask if they are going up? Should you have asked, "Are you going to stand there all day or do you want to get in the elevator"? :)