I Guess I Have Awful Manners
So I'm coming back from the lunchroom with my piping hot cup of microwaved soup and a Coke that I bought on a whim. And to get into the room I work in, I need to swipe a card to open the door. And I'm clumsy as all hell, and have learned the hard way (a few times) that I should not Just Go For it where balancing hot beverages and locked portals is concerned.
So I set my coke and soup down and pull out my swipe card. I swipe it. The door unlocks. For how long, I don't know; I decide to try and be quick about opening it and getting to the door before it relocks.
As I'm picking up my coke-and-soup tower, a man who comes in here once or twice a day to deliver/pickup mail comes OUT the door. Dandy! Door is opened for me. I return my attention to not spilling boiling water on myself and pass on through.
Two or three minutes later, he comes back in and stands at my desk. Not shocking: I sit at what is, besides my workspace, the (very low-traffic) reception desk of our little room. No one has come to it before to ask me anything, but I'm figuring, okay, this is the first time.
I say hi.
He smiles thinly, and says, "you know, there's only a couple of things that really bother me, and one of them is what just happened there. I come out that door and hold it open for you, and you don't say shit."
I blink. I say, flailing, "Oh, I'm sorry..." and he taps the counter with his hand, turns, and marches on out.
What the hell? I recognize the etiquette of saying please and thank you and acknowledging the small kindnesses of others, and I have no problem with that, and had I not been thinking "don't spill the soup don't spill the soup don't spill the soup" I might even have exchanged a nod and a smile instead of concentrating on my hands.
But a couple minutes passed between incident and callout. He left, went on his way, and while doing so got so steamed about my bad manners that he came back here specifically to tell me off. No interest in engaging me on the subject; no warning shots; just an angry little verbal smackdown and then a turn on the heel.
So I set my coke and soup down and pull out my swipe card. I swipe it. The door unlocks. For how long, I don't know; I decide to try and be quick about opening it and getting to the door before it relocks.
As I'm picking up my coke-and-soup tower, a man who comes in here once or twice a day to deliver/pickup mail comes OUT the door. Dandy! Door is opened for me. I return my attention to not spilling boiling water on myself and pass on through.
Two or three minutes later, he comes back in and stands at my desk. Not shocking: I sit at what is, besides my workspace, the (very low-traffic) reception desk of our little room. No one has come to it before to ask me anything, but I'm figuring, okay, this is the first time.
I say hi.
He smiles thinly, and says, "you know, there's only a couple of things that really bother me, and one of them is what just happened there. I come out that door and hold it open for you, and you don't say shit."
I blink. I say, flailing, "Oh, I'm sorry..." and he taps the counter with his hand, turns, and marches on out.
What the hell? I recognize the etiquette of saying please and thank you and acknowledging the small kindnesses of others, and I have no problem with that, and had I not been thinking "don't spill the soup don't spill the soup don't spill the soup" I might even have exchanged a nod and a smile instead of concentrating on my hands.
But a couple minutes passed between incident and callout. He left, went on his way, and while doing so got so steamed about my bad manners that he came back here specifically to tell me off. No interest in engaging me on the subject; no warning shots; just an angry little verbal smackdown and then a turn on the heel.
posted by cortex at 11:42 AM
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