5 Ways You Might Be the WOAT (Worst Of All Time)

The world’s a volatile, stressful place. Why not treat people the way you’d like to be treated? Why not be considerate? Why does this concept seem to be so hard for adults to grasp? Why be the WOAT? The following is a list of offenses. If you commit any of them you are, undoubtedly, the WOAT.

1. Waiting first in line in a busy public restroom and not checking to ensure all stalls are in use, therefore holding up an entire line of people.

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I cannot tell you how many times I've been waiting in line for a bathroom stall and, after waiting an unusually long time, the person in front of me finally gets a newly free stall. I become first in line and, suspicious, lightly push on a door or two and find stalls were available all along. Having to pee is the WOAT, so people like that are the WOAT.

2. Littering in a place where another human is going to have to spend time in their ONE LIFE picking it up to put it in a proper receptacle.

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One time a woman sat next to me on Amtrak and bent over to clean out her purse onto the floor with vigor, snapping her wrist to deposit each coffee cup, receipt, and food wrapper. This ain't no Disney channel House Mom game; the floor is not going to absorb trash. Although I wish it would, cause it would've absorbed her. BOOM! When the train rolled into DC, she got up and raced to the door leaving her trash and her vape. Ordinarily I would've chased down someone who'd left behind a personal item, but I minded my own business and let the God of Retribution take care of her.

3. Putting your fingers on glass doors when a perfectly good, smudge proof handle or push bar is right in front of you.

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I’m giving perps the benny of the doubt that they’re touching the glass to avoid germ-riddled surfaces. If so, use your hip, the heel of your hand, your elbow, anything but your ole greasy fingers. Someone has to Windex that, you know, and you’re not a three year-old smearing your hands on the backseat window of your mom’s Subaru. There's no excuse. I'm about to start dusting for prints, tracking y'all down and hitting you with a lil Windex spritz. Not in the eyes, though. I keep it civilized.

4. Walking into an elevator before people using wheelchairs or strollers.

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Bonus POS points if the elevator is visibly next to stairs and you're able-bodied and unencumbered. Enough said.

5. Not writing a thank you note

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If you've been interviewed, write a thank you note. If you've been gifted, write a thank you note. If someone invited you to dinner or hosted you in their home, write a thank you note. If someone threw a party for you, write a thank you note. If someone wrote you a recommendation letter, write a thank you note. I continue to clutch my pearls when I hear of or experience people who do not write thank you notes. It takes five minutes, costs just about nothing and breaks up someone's junk mail deluge with something personal and nice. At the very least write a thank you email. When in doubt, just remember: "Don’t be the WOAT, write the note."