Common courtesy
Remember at the end of the 19th century, when we all got together and agreed to stop bowing and curtseying and saying "good heavens, whatever is the matter child?"
That was progress.
I know we're more than a dozen years into the 21st century now, but it's not too late. We can make a little progress of our own. Can we all just agree to stop acting out bollocks door-holding courtesies like anyone gives a shit?
It may be ok, if you're out on a date. Open the door with a flourish. This is fine, don't get me wrong. But it has no place in an office or on the street. Stop giving way - you are actually getting in everybody's way.
And besides, everybody knows the only reason you're doing this is to check out their arse. Definitely not an office thing.
It's not even about women. I was in a lift the other day with seven other men. And somehow I had to push my way past all seven to get off, even though it was the last stop and they all had to get off too. Why? Because they were all trying too hard to give way to everyone else.
No, they weren't looking at my arse. Shut up. They weren't. Not all of them.
You know that awkward moment when someone's holding the door for you, and you have to skip ahead at half a run, just to get there in time? Who is this helping? I am a grown up. I can open a door. Let. It. Go.
Every time there's a fire alarm, you'll see the insanity. As we all crowd through those emergency exits, the guy in front will hold the door for you. When you get there, you take it off them. But that's not enough - he'll want to hold it for the guy behind you too. And even the next guy behind is already reaching over you to try to hold it for you. And before you know it, your hands all end up touching, and then nobody can ever look each other in the eye again.
So, from this day forth, hold no doors, except for the following allowances:
- person behind holding something with both hands
- person behind in a wheelchair, or on crutches, or conspicuously pregnant
- the door happens to be one of those truly lethal fast-swinging ones
- person behind less than ten years old
- you're on a date
- your front door.
As an additional note, that person who always shouts "there's room for one more" in the lift, when there are plenty more lifts and honestly no room, shall henceforth be thrown into the lift shaft without remorse.
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