The rules of common courtesy

The older I get, the more I realize that my expectations of people are often high. Note I didn't say "too high" because I feel people should simply meet them. I don't feel I'm asking too much. :)

I brought donuts to work today for my team. I took the left-overs to the common kitchen area of the floor I work on, all staff considered in the "business area." I just walked in there to heat my lunch and noticed the box was sitting there empty. Now this just makes me mad that I even brought the donuts in the first place.

Here's my biggest question: Did it not occur to the person who took the last donut that there was a handy-dandy trash can 3 feet away marked "TRASH" or did this person know better and was simply lazy? Truly, I want to know, do people not know better? Because I notice it happens a lot. I'd like to pop out from around the corner and grill this person.

And who are the mysterious people who leave their dishes in the sink? Seriously, you couldn't leave them in your office until you have time to clean them and return them to your office? How gross to try and wash dishes with someone else's germs all over the place. The germifide water is splashing back up onto my clean dish! There's no way to escape it. I totally understand doing it at home. It's your home. But the office? And I'm not pointing the finger at the men. These are girlie looking dishes. At a previous company, I started throwing these items away when no one was looking. Hopefully for anyone reading this who recalls losing dishes you left in the sink, consider this your lesson learned. There is no service that comes through and cleans up after you. Just me, who tosses it all.

I held the door open for a colleague the other day and she walked through saying nothing at all. Seriously? So you prefer me to let the door slam in your face next time? This baffles me.

Where has common courtesy disappeared to? Or is this how it's always been and I was just too young to take notice?

Instead of reality shows where people act like they aren't on camera, can't we tape people who have no idea they are on camera? Catch these common courtesy criminals in action? That's reality tv if you ask me. You don't need to pay people to "act" when you can find everyday people acting terribly all over the place.

Clearly it's Friday, and I need to go home and hibernate! :)