People like their space

She will come in late everyday and blame mass transit. She comes in late consistently at the same time. She should leave her house earlier.

When she does some in she’ll walk around the office talking to people instead of sitting down and answering the ringing telephones.

Her attitude bothers me most of the time.

But I am not her to complain about her.


I see him during the morning commute, frequently. He sits at the last bench on the platform reading his copy of the free paper.

I stand further down towards the end of the platform.

He will wait until the train is arriving to leave his bench and wait in the same area as me for the train to stop and the doors to open.

Yesterday, the doors opened and the couple that were standing in the doorway slightly gave ground so that other people could enter the train.

The guy entering the train takes a half step into the train, into the very space relinquished by the lady still standing there.

In a perfect world no one would be standing in the doorway but the doorway is premium space for standing in and the doors on this particular side of the train don’t open nearly as frequently as the other side, so people like standing there.

He was in her personal space, so she retreated a little further away from the door, waiting for the guy to move into the train but he didn’t, he set his feet and opened his paper

When the lady realized that the guy was overtaking her space she said, “Dude, are you really taking my space?” His response was to stand there in silence.

I have seen the guy exhibit behavior that could be considered rude but it could also be a social disorder or even just ignorance as to what polite behavior is.

I then realized that he will always stand in that spot. I guess he thinks that that is his spot. He also sits in the same spot on the same bench everyday.

The lady moved over to in front of the guy she was with for a slightly uncomfortable ride into town.

People like their space.