After almost three years after leaving NYC and living in DC, I’m still trying to figure out this city’s door holding etiquette. In New York, you can pretty much bank on the fact that someone won’t hold the door for you, unless you’re right on their tail and/or they make direct eye contact with you (thus creating some sort of required social politeness). But here, in DC, it seems that it’s polite to hold the door for someone walking up to, say, 20 feet behind you under certain circumstances. For example, how long do you wait and hold the door for someone if:
a) he/she obviously lives in your building?
b) he/she will obviously be entering/exiting your work place?
c) you make eye contact?
d) he/she is a complete stranger on the street?
e) you’re in a crummy mood?
f) you’re in a hurry?
It seems that the longest you should hold the door in any situation is if the person is MAXIMUM 20 quick walking-speed paces behind you. You standing, holding the door, any longer could make seem not extra sweet, but creepy/stalker-nice—like when a stranger makes smiles at you just a tad too long and you feel a bit icky.
My advice is to never look behind you when entering/exiting a building. Only if you hear footsteps close behind, as you’re opening the door, take a quick glance out of your periphery and hold the door for that person.
I’m sure there’s an equation for all this, but I was never that great at math.
