The Baffling Bathroom Door

[oyceter]

Since rachelmanija wanted to know...

The door to the women's bathroom was replaced at my office a few months after I started working here, mostly to make the floor handicap-regulation compliant. The new door was a nifty automatically opening model; the door would open veeeerrrrry sloooooowly once you pushed it a little.

There was much confusion as people adjusted to the new door. Every time I'd walk by, I'd see someone pushing the door open, then staring as the door opened veeeerrrry slooooowly. You could just see the wheels in their head turning: "Is someone behind the door? Should I go in? Is our bathroom haunted? What to do, what to do??"

Then, of course, just as everyone finally got used to a self-opening door, it stopped working. And then it started again. And then it stopped.

The door is very heavy, so you have to put a good deal of force in it to get it to open if the door has decided not to work, but if it has, all you need to do is tap it a bit. I think if you hung around the door for a long enough time, you'd see people (like me) giving the door a cautious tap, and then staring in confusion as it refused to open. Or they would barge ahead, full tilt, and end up flat on their faces by pushing too hard when the door was already opening.

Cubicle life amuses me. So do doors (I have an apparently life-long history of conflict with doors. I do not get along well with inanimate objects).

Comments

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, we had the same style damned door at the UW job I quit in 01, and it never failed to freak people out, esp as we had lots of visiting applicants to the med school.

[oyceter]

Yeah! It was so funny watching everyone stop at the door with this horribly confused look on their faces though.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That made me laugh. It's almost as if the door is sentient, isn't it? And teasing you.

When I was in Japan, I only used cabs when I had missed the last train due to being out drinking late, so the automatic cab doors would startle me every time, to the amusement of the cabbies, who would then get even more amusement out of listening to a drunken, hiccuping gaijin trying to remember, then say "Ume Koji Koen-mae," or some similar tongue-twister.

[oyceter]

I swear, the door is sentient! Actually, I would swear to a lot of inanimate objects being sentient, given the amount of trouble I seem to have with them ;).

I like your cab story! I must tell you my multitude of door stories some time as well.

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

At least they gave us a button to press at my office for the opening slowly option. Of course, in the few years since that button's been installed we've had a couple of broken limbs requiring the use of crutches, but no wheelchairs. Which means my daughter's probably used that button on her various trips to my office more than all of the other people who actually work here combined.

We also have a problem where people entering quickly have been known to mow down people attempting to exit because the door opens inward and there's no way to know when/if there's someone on the other side. Reversely, the number of near heart attacks when the person on the inside opens a door that someone on the outside was just getting ready to push open is too many to count.

If not for the over-all ick factor of cameras in/around bathrooms, I've often thought that many classic America's Funniest Video moments could be recorded right there at that doorway.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I think mostly we got our door for one person too, but hey! It's nifty!

We have the same problem with people mowing down other people! Actually, mostly I do the mowing or the being mowed, since I don't really pay attention to where I'm going, and I think it'd be hilarious if there were some sort of video around if, if not for the ick factor.