Common Courtesy

Last week (and the two days of this week) was rough at work. Nothing big is happening - no deadlines or stress of that nature - but something else is irking me.

It seems that very few people acknowledge or respect others' personal space. Gone are the days of knocking on an office door. Why not just walk in? If there's something shiny on someone's desk, why not pick it up and play with it? There's a stapler, why not use that one instead of my own?

My office is different because it contains the common printer for my floor. Therefore, my office key is the common key; anyone can come in at any time. But that's no excuse for these things....

-My mother called early the other morning. Though very few people were around, I still wanted privacy so I shut my door (something I very rarely do). Within minutes someone was trying to open my door. They apparently found it difficult. It took them so long that I stood up and opened it for them. They got their printed materials....but came back soon thereafter to get more, though it should have been obvious I wanted privacy!

-A student stopped by my office, not an inch outside my door, faced my office, and proceeded to have a conversation on his phone. I had to physically turn around and glare at him before he took a hint that a doorway to someone's office is probably not the best place to talk to his girlfriend.

-There's one professor who, no matter what I'm doing, thinks that he needs to talk to me as he waits for his paper to come through the printer. Yesterday - when I was clearly working - he asked me, "I wonder how much paper one tree produces? You're a researcher, go research that." Yeah? Well, you can shove it, jackass.

-Why does an open doorway automatically mean that I want to talk to you? I don't. Really. No, really. If I want to talk, I'll find you, knock on your door, and ask if you have a minute.

-One professor walks in to get stuff off the printer. Another professor walks in to do the same. They strike up a conversation...a conversation I'm not a part of. In my office. And they don't leave.

-I come into my office to find my top desk drawer (the common pen and pencil drawer) slightly open and riffled through. Seriously?

I'm more than a little tired of people. Why don't they afford me the same courtesy I give them? Professional courtesy....common courtesy? In general, I think professionalism is dead - at least from where I'm sitting.