Interview Question of the Day: Rain, Umbrellas and Public Transportation
Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 by Frank Roche
Here’s my interview question of the day: If you’re soaking wet, when you get on the train, do you:
a) Shake off like a Labrador Retriever on everyone near you, then set your wet bag and umbrella down on the dry seat next to you?
b) Take off your coat before you sit down, fold it inside out, and put your wet bag and umbrella on the ground?
It’s raining an inch an hour and the wind is gusting up to 50 mph in Philly this morning. Everyone’s wet, even if they have an umbrella. My pants are soaked. It’s a Carpenters song out there.
I saw at least three people near me pick Answer A. They shook off on people. Then the put their wet things down on a dry seat next to them, meaning that no one else could sit there at a stop closer in. They shook their wet coats; I shook my head.
Awareness of how your actions affect others is essential in my book. Shake your wet self on me, or think it’s okay, and you can’t work here.
Would you hire someone who thought it was okay to put a wet umbrella on a dry seat?
Paul Smith
Jan 25th, 2010
Frank,
And to top it all off, they were probably unapologetic about it as well.
I’m glad your level of tolerance is the same as mine. I would have been shaking my head too.
I think your question though might make for a good personality-type interview question: “You get on a crowded subway train with a wet umbrella, what do you do with the umbrella?”
and oh, yeah…I see I’m going to be stuck with the Carpenters song in my head all day now.
Frank Roche
Jan 25th, 2010
Hey Paul, I have that song in my head too.
Yeah, no apologies. No awareness at all. Your question is right…I would want to know.
Marisa
Jan 25th, 2010
I am always surprised when people choose option A (or equally unthinking things). Growing up, my parents were very careful to instill a sense of community in me, and an awareness of how my own actions effect the people around me. It’s so jarring when I’m reminded that not everyone shares that perspective (I get jolted in that manner a lot here in Philadelphia).
Frank Roche
Jan 25th, 2010
Marisa, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Do you see yourself as part of the community or not? Your parents are wonderful — we need more people raised with that sense. I can’t imagine putting wet things down on a dry seat. And this is R5 stuff…it’s particularly grating when the helicopter parents whose children do no wrong (ick) are the ones doing it. Ugh.
Lance Haun
Jan 25th, 2010
Do you think part of it is familiarity?
Not to defend the rudeness but from a (former) daily transit rider in Portland, Oregon, that rarely happened here. People just knew how to deal with it better.
- Most people have jackets with hoods or weather tolerant haircuts (my preference). You have a comb and a bottle of hairspray at work and you take care of 90% of the problem. Umbrellas were out of the norm.
- If you didn’t have far to go on the line and you were wet, you just stood for the ride. My ride in was typically 20-30 minutes so it was fine for me.
- If it was crowded and standing room only, you leave your jacket on (unbuttoned or unzipped).
- Waterproof dress shoes are sold here with a permanent polish. They cost almost $200 but well worth it. You have a small towel at work and you can clean them off and they look as good as new.
I don’t know. I always forget to take better care of my shoes whenever it snows. We just don’t deal with it as often. Certainly I think you can be thoughtless and rude but I think you can also be thoughtless out of familiarity. To me, it is all about patterns. Do you have a pattern of thoughtlessness? You’re probably rude.
Frank Roche
Jan 25th, 2010
Hi Lance,
You’re right…when I lived in Amsterdam it rained a lot — probably not unlike Portland can be. Few people used umbrellas…it was mostly raincoats.
Very cool outline of how you do it in the Northwest. There’s lots for us to learn here in Philly. Those people who were shaking water on others? It’s a pattern. They’ve done other things before. (When you commute at the same time every day, it’s a moveable feast…only without the feast.)
Nathaniel
Jan 26th, 2010
I have to say that it drives me nuts walking past people with umbrellas when they don’t lift it high enough over your head. It’s just rain, it won’t hurt you. I don’t want to be poked in the eye because you don’t want to get wet. Sorry that was a bit of a rant. You’re right, it speaks to a bigger issue of courtesy and community. It’s about being aware of your actions and the effect they have on the people around you.