Talk:Elevator operator

Smith tower
The picture on the side has a captin mentionning the still manually operated elevators of the smith tower, however this is no longer the case as of a few years ago : https://www.geekwire.com/2017/end-long-ride-seattles-historic-smith-tower-automate-elevators-century-manual-operation/ 185.220.12.67 (talk) 01:16, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

Lift attendant
This is the term I know best from the UK, not lift operator. Well into the 1990s, the city museum in Liverpool had a lift attendant, despite the lifts being fairly modern push-button affairs. I remember being surprised by that in around 1993. 81.158.2.229 (talk) 23:41, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

In automatic elevators
In some especially fancy buildings in NYC, you'll still encounter elevator operators even in automatic push-button elevators -- I guess it's a courtesy service like with doormen. It may also have to do with the fact that they belong to a pretty strong union: it may not be possible to eliminate the positions until they voluntarily retire. Anyway, I've seen this with my own eyes, but have no clue how to find reliable sources supporting their existence. -- Avocado (talk) 13:12, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

The office building that I worked in the 1970s had maybe six or eight elevators, all of themn automatic, but still employed elevator superintendants, with at least one on duty during business hours. These guys stayed in the main floor lobby, and could, I suppose, monitor the flow and direct deployment of the elevators from control panels. They could also designate which floors to stop and which to skip (say if a group filled an elevator for a ride to the top floors, there as no point in additional stops, so they'd send it up "express." They changed the protocol to deal with typical rush hours (e.g., at quittin' time, most will be going down) and unusual events. Mostly, they were there to yell at us young mail room guys for doing things like pushing in all the buttons at the end of the ride just to see 'em all pop out.  Things like that. The old "supply" building behind ours still had a manually-operated elevator with an old guy in a company uniform to steer it.  WHPratt (talk) 14:39, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

It's correct that elevator operators still existed after elevators were automated, and in some places the operators were retained through retirement, and not replaced. They pressed buttons and often announced what was on each floor. The article itself gives and example of this in the section about the NYC subway system. I don't see why a citation should be needed to correct this, since the problem is that statements indicating that they went away with the advent of automatic elevators are incorrect and lack citations. You don't need a citation to show that something did not happen. Elevator operators did not automatically go away when elevators were automated. Elevator operators are uncommon these days in automatic elevators. Wikipedia rules do not require citations for statements that are self evident or widely known, and are not subject to dispute, so it's fine to say that they are no longer common in automatic elevators. Since the article gives specific examples of their use in automatic elevators, it's clear that they are not gone. Hagrinas (talk) 19:29, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

US-centric
This interesting article needs more non-U.S. balance. Kdammers (talk) 14:41, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Not an obsolete occupation
Operators are still employed in the construction of multistoried buildings. These could either be in the exterior-mounted construction hoists or a passenger elevator that is not finished yet. Combuchan (talk) 19:06, 30 May 2023 (UTC)