I can't stand "door courtesy". At least that's what I call it. Clearly it's polite and the right thing to do but for whatever reason it has evolved into a huge pet peave of mine to the point that I will try to time when I get to a door so that I won't have to hold it for anyone else or have it held for me.
I really hate it when I am clearly oustide the "I need the door held for me out of politeness" span of distance, and still the person holds the door and stares at you with some stupid grin on their face. Thus forcing me to choose whether to indure a humiliating jog to the door or to just continue at my current pace and leave him standing there for what seems like too long.
One way I look like an idiot jogging to a door, and the other I look rude for forcing him to hold the door for a fraction beyond the arbitrary amount of time that seems polite. It's a no win situation and the other side of it isn't much better...
If I get to a door and there is someone behind me. I never know for sure if they are far enough behind me that I can just go through without seeming rude or if I should try to hold it for them and risk being the guy with the stupid grin on my face (mentioned above) forcing them to make the tough choice.
I've actually stayed in my car and waited for people to be well ahead of me walking in to work so as not to have to deal with this, and ran up stairs if I knew that their was a door at the top that might force me to make a decision.
The clear exception here is my wife, as any life loving guy knows, there is no situation in which the door should NOT be held for her, so the choice is moot.
So anyway, if you are closing in on a door, and you see me surreptitiously examining a hedge behind you, you'll know why.
1 comment:
You're right on here. There's this vague unwritten rule that I completely don't get that seems to have to do not only with distance but with whether they've seen that you've seen them or not. Not to mention the whole idea that if you hold the door open for a woman who's too far away she might think you're just trying to check her out. Clearly, it's better to just ignore them. I ususally try to look like I'm deep deep in thought. Cry if you have to in order to look distracted.
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