"One of my colleagues has the annoying habit of entering my office without knocking. These are not social visits: She invariably needs help with her computer or wants to borrow instructional materials, and she just opens the door and walks in. Before we moved to this building, her office was a few doors down from mine, and she would simply shout for me whenever she needed something. If I didn't respond, she would shout louder."
"I finally sent her a testy email asking her to come to my door rather than shout for me as if I were a dog. She stopped doing this, but her feelings were clearly hurt. She just doesn't pick up on the subtler signals of body language and tone of voice by which most people would realize that their behavior had offended someone."
A professor experiences a colleague habitually entering without knocking and previously shouting from a nearby office. The colleague opens doors for help with computers or instructional materials and does not perceive subtle nonverbal cues of offense. A testy email asking for more courteous behavior stopped the shouting but hurt the colleague’s feelings. Keeping the door locked is undesirable because it reduces student accessibility. The recommended approach is to treat the colleague as someone who lacks knowledge and to use clear, collegial, and direct verbal instruction about the office-knocking policy rather than relying on subtle signals or confrontation.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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