Enjablog

I walk through an office building with two pairs of double doors as part of my normal commute to work. I normally open a door, walk through, open the next door, and continue on my way. *Amazing* If there’s someone ahead of me or behind me, they’ll either hold the door open long enough for me to grab it or vice versa. Polite, right? Last week, I had a guy race up from behind me headed for this building as well. Before I had a chance to reach for the door handle, he said he’d get the door for me. So, I paused a second while he got the door. No biggie. A little overenthusiastic, but it’s a door. Whatever.

Normally in this situation, if a guy gets the first door for me, I will open the second door and allow him to walk through first, reciprocating. If that turns out to be unacceptable, he can hold the door while I walk through first. Oh, but not this guy. No, no. He says, “This doors a little different,” as he raced around to the other side of me to open the door. This time, I actually did try to open the door because he was a couple seconds behind me from holding the first door. And yes, there was a difference between the doors. The exterior doors each had a handle and we walked through the door on the left side. The interior doors only had a handle on the door on the right side. *gasp*

I’m typically not one to make a big deal out of someone holding a door open for me. It’s polite, regardless of sex. But what’s with the weirdly awkward attempt at chivalry? I somehow make it to work every day, so I must have some concept of how doors work. It’d be one thing if he had just said, “Let me get that one for you too.” But no. “Doors are so complicated; let me help you.” Uhm… Thanks, dude.

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Different day, walking through the same set of doors, I was right behind someone. He opened the first door wide enough for him to walk through and for me to catch it before it shut. He was definitely aware after the first door that I was behind him because he looked back when the door didn’t shut when he expected to hear that sound. I was about half a pace behind him approaching the second set of doors and he opened it enough to slip himself through, but not even enough for my hand to catch the door. I caught the handle just as the door closed.

What kind of person does that? You don’t slam a door on someone. Even if you don’t want to hold a door open for the next person, don’t open it so little that it almost hits you in the process.

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Different day, different door (same building): I held a door open an extra second as I was walking out because two women were about a step away from walking in. And they showed such genuine gratitude for it. On the one hand, it’s just a door. On the other hand, they’ve probably gotten used to people like the previous two guys from walking around this area.

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Revolving doors:

Step 1 - Get in to an individual section.
Step 2 - Walk/push.
Step 3 - Exit.
Step 4 - Get out of the way!

I’ve found people to be least competent at revolving doors at crowded restaurants. I got a dirty look from someone because his heel got hit by the door as I was exiting. He, of course, didn’t take a step away from the door when he got through. He just stood in the way as the door continued to revolve and half a dozen people waited to get through.

My office building has a revolving door, which no one seems to use. I don’t understand this because I grew up loving revolving doors. They’re so much fun! (And conserves energy! How could that not be fun?) In any case, I was walking through one day as one of my coworkers also arrived at work and he went through the normal door. He told me as we waited for the elevator that he never goes through the revolving door because he saw [another coworker] get trapped inside. How does someone get trapped inside? Someone else is inconsiderate and leaves something in way so the door cannot turn or they, themselves, will not get out of the way.

So, do yourself a favor and get out of the way. Because if I’m the person behind you, I will not be polite and get trapped inside a glass cage. You will get hit by a door. And then hit again by the next door if you’re dumb enough to still be in the way.