What does a porter do?

when the elevator is crowded he teleports me right into my bathroom on the 19th floor....

Oh, he also stands besides the delivery guy (and watches to ensure I get the right change) and sometimes.. i feel bad and tip him too (the porter that is)....

Once my friend told me, a porter is a "doorman" in waiting.....

Porters do all of the grunt work in the building. They take out the trash, take care of minor repairs (act as a handyman), generally keep the building running.

In my building they mop/vacuum/polish the lobby/hallway/cellar floors, collect garbage and recycling and take it out (helped by doormen,) cover the door for breaks and lunch, run the snowblower, sweep the sidewalk, whatever else the super wants done, and all kinds of other stuff I don't know about.

so, should i not assume that he accepts packages? I'll just ask him.

A plumber plumbs and a porter ports...obviously.

obviously.

Anyway, it's cool that we have a porter, whatever he does. What would be even cooler is if we had a maasai warrior!

In a lot of buildings, porter = janitor + bellhop.