I would like to think I’m not an axe-wielding feminist but a liberal and enlightened modern woman. I do not expect men to stand up and offer me their seat. I do not expect to be passed over for a promotion because the competition is a man. I expect equal rights. But I know we don’t live in a just World.

Because I work in IT, most of my officemates are men. That’s okay, most of the time I’m more at ease with men anyway. Most of my friends are male. And I am enjoying my current workplace. We’re busy up to our necks with deadlines but that’s life.

What bothers me is the number of doors we have to go thru to go from place to place within our office. The first is the main building door, then the secure door on our floor. Then there’s a door that separates the Technology and the meeting rooms from the rest of the floor, then there’s the actual Technology team’s door. Then there are the meeting room doors. And if you need the admin & marketing people or some stationeries, you go out the Tech room, thru the separating door thru another door.

It can feel like Alcatraz sometimes because if you want to wee, you need to remember your fob (security key) otherwise you cannot go in or out. And to digress a little, when I was interviewed I was let out that floor’s door but since it was nearly 7pm, the main door out the building was already locked. I couldn’t go back up because no one would hear me anyway & imagine me shouting for my interviewers! Thankfully, some guy was going out at the same time I was beginning to panic.

Anyway, any given day someone always opens the door for me. Now it’s not a bad thing & I do appreciate it. BUT if I am still 6 feet (or more!) away then I tend to do a mini-walkathon just so the guy wouldn’t have to wait “too long”. I keep saying thank you and I do say they don’t have to but…

I don’t want to appear like I’m playing coy but this particular guy probably heard me enough times that he replied he was just doing me a favour! And from the expression on his face, it wasn’t a playful banter. I didn’t say anything because what would I say? I have done nothing wrong. And he doesn’t deserve a reply.

A few days after that my eye-candy said to me that there were cakes for everyone. I joked that if he’s forcing us to take a break we will. To which he laughed and sent a nakakakilig-na-pogi smile my way. But at the same time, this door-opener muttered it was only a suggestion and we’re welcome not to take part.

I don’t know if he’s had a bad day or he thinks I’m flirting (which I wasn’t, it was a clean joke) & he doesn’t like it. Maybe he thinks I should be grateful he’s bothering to hold the effing door for me. Since he said it low enough for only myself to understand, I had no way of asking what his problem was without appearing petty. It’s been a few weeks and I haven’t noticed any bad attitude from him. He’s actually professional and I like working with him. So I could just be paranoid or I still don’t understand these British folks.

For now, I also open the doors for them.

image from: breakupgirl.net

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 8:02 pm and is filed under women, work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.