Just let me take the stairs!

It's FRIDAY!!! This weekend is not going to be all that spectacular (especially after last weekend's Disciple Now festivities) but I will get to spend a ton of time outside in particularly awesome weather working in my yard/garden and running. There's only one thing that could make this weekend better and that would be Rangers baseball. Unfortunately, the Rangers' opener is exactly one month away so Spring Training and Sony Playstation baseball will have to continue to fill the void.

Let me say that I love my job and I love the office building we inhabit. First of all, there are only four of us in the office so a lot of the weird "corporate America" things that a lot of our friends experience in bigger operations don't really apply. Additionally, I have a great view from my 5th floor office. Granted, there aren't a whole lot of "great views" in Wichita Falls but I have one of the better ones. One of my co-workers also happens to be a great cook and constantly brings good food to work to share with us. However, there is one aspect to our building that annoys the heck out of me: you cannot take the stairs! For some reason you cannot enter any floor from the stairwell and you can only exit out of the bottom floor to the outside. What this means is that you may use the stairs to exit the building in case of an emergency or if you happen to be leaving the building but you cannot go up the stairs to get to your floor or use the stairs to travel between floors.

Why? I don't know. I have heard that it is for security reasons. Security from what?! Fire safety? Having worked as an RA in a 12-floor dorm for two years and knowing that 1100 college students (a portion of whom are too intoxicated or stupid to accomplish basic tasks such as dressing appropriately, getting out of bed, or not getting kicked out of school) are entrusted with leaving fire doors shut, surely a professional building can handle it as well. I'm asking all of you...what reasons can you think of that might remotely explain this situation?

Haven't we been hearing for years that taking the stairs is healthier for us (it is)? Wouldn't it be less of a strain on the building's elevator systems to allow us to take the stairs? I don't get it...