Door-holding gray areas

I’ve heard that some places this can get you in trouble, but at least in Utah it’s still okay to hold the door for people. I’m a door-holder, though I don’t discriminate. Male or female, I’ll hold the door.

Especially at work. We have a security door in our area that we pass through to get to the restrooms, and so there is frequent traffic through that door. People hold the door for each other because it’s a pain to have to scan your badge and wait for the door to unlock. Yeah, it’s not very secure, but we recognize pretty much everyone in the area.

But I’ve noticed a certain awkwardness about this door, too. If someone is close behind you it only makes sense to hold the door. But how far away does someone have to be before you can ignore them and let the door close without appearing rude? Holding the door when they’re too far away usually just causes them to break into an awkward jog to show that they don’t want to inconvenience you by making you wait too long.

So we end up with this indeterminate gray zone where the person currently at the door has to decide whether to hold the door or just move on, because most of all you want whatever you do appear natural and

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