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Random Acts of Excruciating Annoyance
What Are YOU Doing That Drives People Nuts?
“I hate people who use the automatic door opener when they don’t need to,” my co-worker Sara said recently.
I always use the automatic door opener! I used to struggle to open the heavy doors to the library where I work. Then they were replaced with automatic doors. Now I just punch a button and — voila! — they spring open! I can stroll right in. How cool is that?
Little did I realize that something I thought of as harmless and pleasant could so annoy someone else.
“What’s wrong with punching the button?” I asked Sara.
“You’re not supposed to use the automatic door opener unless you’re sick or handicapped!”
“Says who? Show me the sign saying that the punch button is limited to that use. Who am I hurting by using it?”
She’d been so certain that an able-bodied person using the automatic doors was an outrage that she had to think for a moment.
“It wastes electricity?” she finally suggested.
“How much electricity can it possibly take to open a door?” I scoffed.
I pride myself on my tiny carbon footprint. I walk to work. I rarely eat meat. I recycle. I think the planet will survive if I…
