One of the escalators in the Renaissance Center jammed today, grinding to a halt. Four General Motors executives were on it when the accident occurred and remained trapped there for three hours until building maintenance personnel were able to get it restarted. While visibly shaken, the executives were uninjured by their harrowing experience. Film at eleven.

The escalators have always been shut off at 7 pm, and back on at 6 am. Worse than that, on weekends all elevators but one in each bank are shut off as well.

On weekends, they shut off the a/c at noon on Saturday as well.

It has been that way as long as I remember, and none of the industries in the building are what I would call in danger of dying.

The company actually had the nerve to put up signs throughout the store saying they were doing these measures to be more “green”, and to save the local utility companies electricity during high demand times in the summer. It was pathetic.

1: a clumsy way to reinforce the ’sense of urgency’ to the employees and make them less likely to be shocked when they get hauled into HR for their ‘involuntary separation‘ chat.
2: an attempt to show any potential investors/partners/Henry Paulson that they are ‘trying everything they can‘ to cut costs.

All in all it’s silly…Why you ask? Because companies the size of GM do not receive traditional itemized utility bills like you and I at home…No,no,no… companies that size ‘negotiate’ a price for their utilities annually and usually pay said bill quarterly so turning stuff off and inconveniencing your employees, visitors and customers doesn’t really do doodly-squat.

Mitch Hedberg, RIP

-Mitch Hedberg

Even John Portman is feeling GM’s pain now.

Have you ever been inside the Ren Cen? I dare you to take the stairs inside that place. No need to insult folks who are obviously facing very difficult times ahead.

On a more serious note – this is a signal of how bad the cash flow is at GM – and an ominous one at that.

Some ways to be more green are an inconvenience, so of course not everyone wants to implement them –this is just shutting off the escalators when no one is there. Couldn’t they employ a low power laser sensor at the top of the down and bottom of the up escalators to make them “on demand”? I haven’t ever witnessed an escalator powering up or down, perhaps it takes a long time to do so?

Or people can just use the stairs –lazy bastards. We have two floors in our main building here and no escalator or elevator. Are people at GM seriously that lazy? Oh right.. nvm

Chinese automakers probably do not have escalators at all.

No they don’t–that’s something they haven’t figured out how to copy yet. Just kidding. Most factories are only 3-4 floors and modern office buildings have elevators, though garishly trimmed most of the time. A few years ago, I was at the Great Wall and rickshaw service was offered going up (maybe RenCen can get rickshaws imported?) and carnival-style rollercoaster service offered down (we can call it the DJIA Express)

I’m getting too depressed to even make fun of GM anymore. The next few years are going to suck.

Stella: You heard of that market crash in ‘29? I predicted that.

Stella: Oh, simple. I was nursing a director of General Motors. Kidney ailment, they said. Nerves, I said. And I asked myself, What’s General Motors got to be nervous about? Overproduction, I says; collapse. When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country’s ready to let go.