Dr. Jekyll: There are no classes today in honor of MLK Day. There are still plenty of professors in the building as there is always work to be done, even on national holidays. There are no snowflakes in the building as it is locked and only staff get a key. Why then do so many of my colleagues have their office door closed? Are they afraid someone might talk to them?
Prof. Hyde: The answer escapes my friend. Perhaps he should take his rose-tinted glasses off. It is depressing enough to be in the office on a national holiday. Everyone keeping their door shut just adds to the gloomy and unfriendly mood of the building. I couldn't enjoy this mood any more.
I hate not being able to open a window. The only way to get any ventilation into my office is to open the door. And when I do, everything interprets this to mean that I am free to attend to their every, every need. Honestly, the office can be the worst place in the world to get serious work done.
ReplyDeleteFlakes don't suck my time away when I'm at work; my colleagues do. Flakes stop by for a signature and leave. Colleagues sit down and want to chat or get me to fix their schedules or discuss the merits of the class they're teaching (perhaps it differs if one has admin duties or not). I don't have time to chat on a holiday. I want to save chatting for when it's an official work day. :o)
ReplyDeleteMaybe they're at work trying to get away from all those people who are, contrary to custom, home on a weekday, and trying to talk to them there?
ReplyDeleteI hate my co-workers.
ReplyDeleteI was told that a closed door was frowned upon as that meant that I wasn't approachable. If the door was closed, I meant to show that I didn't want to be disturbed unless it was urgent because I had the foolish notion that I was there to actually get some work done. Personally, though, I thought that the department head used the open-door policy as an excuse to spy on me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I often had office mates who were the open-door sort, so, to keep the peace, I let them have their way. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to put up with being gawked at by whoever passed by as well as hearing whenever someone had a cold or enduring the hooting and hollering coming from the coffee room at the other end of the corridor.
Worse was when those office mates had visitors, who almost always treated the open door like a standing invitation to come in and make themselves at home. During my last 2 years of teaching, the assistant department head had the habit of wandering in first thing in the morning, parking his backside in my office mate's spare chair, and then chewing the rag with him until about coffee time. Not only did that show that he didn't have anything to do, I always felt I was watching me.
It made me wonder why we even had doors on our offices at all.
I keep my door closed to keep the heat in. My office is heated to 68 (supposedly) and right now, the hallways are 60. Next week when classes are back in session, the hallways go up to 65, but I keep my door closed anyway. Students and my colleagues never seem to have a problem with knocking if my lights are on. And I have a sign that says "Door closed to keep heat in, not to keep you out. Please knock." I used to be an open door person (and when the weather is good, I still am), but all bets are off when it's 5 degrees outside and the radiator is struggling to keep up with the cold air pouring off my uninsulated window.
ReplyDeleteEven with the crunch of students that regularly hang out near my office (not because of me, but because of furniture availability), I get more work done with my office door ajar at work (and the resulting interruptions that brings) than being at home "alone" where I am constantly shown affection by my well-meaning mutts. When deadlines are looming, however, I feel no compunction about shutting my door.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in the office to chat. I'm in the office to get a lot of work out of the way while the students aren't there. Sure, holidays are for socializing - with my friends and family.
ReplyDelete