People knocking on your door at an early hour can be jarring.
Warning is always appreciated.
But warning is not always going to be given.
And that can be a problem.
Case in point…
Redditor Glittering-Bath-4527 wanted to discuss her experience and get some feedback. So naturally, she came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.
She asked:
“AITA for not answering the door to the maintenance guy?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I (F[emale]19) live in student halls.”
“I have several roommates and we all have our own bedrooms.”
“Last week, at around 6am, someone was knocking on my bedroom door.”
“I was still half asleep and getting ready for work but I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“Normally resident support sends us an email to notify us like weeks in advance if there’s gonna be any maintenance.”
“So I ignored them and they kept knocking for around 20 minutes before they went away.”
“When I got home from work at around 4pm, I noticed I had a voicemail from resident support demanding that I go to their office.”
“I went to the office and they confronted me, saying that one of their maintenance guys knocked on my door and he could hear me on the other side but I ignored him.”
‘I said that they hadn’t notified me there was gonna be any maintenance, and even if they had, I had to get ready for work so I can’t be worrying about letting the maintenance guy in and out of my room.”
“They said I was being unreasonable and that I was making the maintenance guy’s job unnecessarily difficult, and that I wasted his time.”
“They told me to grow up and realize the world doesn’t revolve around me.”
“They told me the maintenance guy will come back to my room at 9am the next day.”
“I told them I won’t be there as I have an 8am lecture.”
“They implied I should skip the class and said that it’s the least I can do for being so annoying.”
“I told them that their ideas of reasonable maintenance times for students are stupid and that most of us are busy on weekday mornings.”
“They called me naive.”
“My roommate told me that the next day, the maintenance guy was knocking on my door for like 10 minutes straight, even though I told them I wouldn’t be in??”
“I’m just wondering if I’m the a**hole here because I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.”
“The maintenance that needs doing isn’t urgent or anything, they just need to check the light bulbs.”
“So AITA?”
Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors declared OP was NOT the A**hole.
“NTA. 6am is an unreasonable time for a maintenance person to arrive at your dorm room, especially without forewarning or there being a significant emergency that you would’ve known about.”
“In pretty much any other living circumstance, notification of entry is required, and it is on the dorm office for having not made you aware of the maintenance person’s arrival that made his job difficult.”
“What if you hadn’t been there?” ~ coastalkid92
“I used to work in two different halls of residence back in my student days, and I can tell you that what you’re experiencing is not the way they should be operating.”
“You absolutely should receive at least 24 hours notice before any planned maintenance work.”
“We would always put up notices on any affected flats and kitchens, common areas, front doors, postboxes, etc.”
“And I imagine now they send out an email.”
“My manager at the time was always very clear about checking we’d given clear notice beforehand.”
“You have a reasonable expectation to privacy in the room you pay for.”
“Now, in a hall, they CAN enter your room when you’re not there.”
“But you should always know about it beforehand.”
“When I was a student, I might have been in class, but I would know that someone would pop by during the day to change a bulb, fix the shower, etc.”
“It would never ever be a surprise that someone had been in the room.”
‘If you had to be there, they would arrange it with you properly.”
“The response from the office is rude and the fact that they suggested you skip class for their convenience is shocking.”
“I’m not sure if you’re in the U[nited] K[ingdom], but typically, if you are, the halls are managed by a student accommodation office somewhere on campus.”
“You need to go there and have a chat with them about what’s been happening.”
‘It’s possible that someone in your hall office is not working by the established rules.”
“Make it very clear that a stranger knocking on your door at 6am unexpectedly, and especially now that the mornings are dark, is disconcerting and feels wrong.”
‘If you weren’t expecting maintenance, you certainly aren’t wrong for being worried about opening the door.”
“Don’t let them make you feel unreasonable, because you are in the right here.”
“It’s also worth checking the rules of the hall or your contract before you complain, to make sure you know exactly how things should be according to their own rules.”
“Forgot to add judgement. NTA.” ~ catmanchew
“I would add since no email was sent informing you maintenance was coming and you weren’t expecting anyone, you worried for your safety that it could be something sinister.”
“Play that up because wtf that’s crazy, NTA!!!”
“Definitely make a complaint that they…”
“1) alluded to missing class and scheduled him to come by when you were in one or…”
“2) when they first came knocking you ran the risk of running late to work, which potentially could get you fired and then you couldn’t pay for school.”
“I know this is all dramatic but make that damn point!!!!!!! Lol.” ~ Naive_Swan913
“It’s SO unreasonable and yet- almost this exact scenario happened to me in college.”
“I had called in for maintenance on something, was up and getting dressed and showered before an early class when the maintenance guy just started POUNDING on the outside door and wouldn’t stop.”
“Since I called, I did everything possible to rush myself out of the shower and into some kind of clothing so I could answer and let him in.”
“The maintenance request was for something bathroom related I think, I can’t quite remember now- but minor, or maybe it was a light somewhere.”
“It took me several minutes to make sure I was decent and answer the door.”
“And the guy looked at me with my hair dripping and basically smirked at me like he was thinking “I can’t believe you’re being so awkward about a maintenance request/how dare you take a shower at 7 a.m. when we didn’t even let you know I was coming.'”
“It made me so FURIOUS because I had to wait to finish getting ready to leave until he was done and out and they could’ve at least tried to come up with a good time that worked for me.” ~ Korike0017
“NTA… a young woman, alone should not be opening her bedroom door to a stranger at 6am! I think they were rude because they shouldn’t have sent him at that time. I would talk to students union or counselling and get a complaint made.” ~ Foundation_Wrong
An old woman shouldn’t open the door to an unscheduled stranger at 6am, either, though in my experience, old women are more likely to be armed so they can at least defend themselves. NTA.” ~ probably_beans
NTA- you are renting from them so have renters rights. Depending on the country, you usually should be given a notice of 24/48hrs and it has to be a reasonable hour. I don’t believe 6am is a reasonable time.
You are paying for your room so they aren’t doing you a favour letting you stay there. Tell them a time you are available and suggest they come then.” ~ Affectionate-Emu1374
“NTA. Not only did they send maintenance at an unsociable time with no notice, they expected you to skip class just so maintenance can -checks notes- look at the lightbulbs.”
“If there’s a student union or something definitely make a complaint, this is incredibly unreasonable.” ~ GreenRedCrescent
“NTA. Go above the heads of the residence staff and complain to the res life provost office, or whichever path makes sense at your institution.”
“In no world should residence staff, that you pay a lot for, be insulting you and expecting you to skip class or let maintenance in your room at 6am.”
“There is something wrong with the staff of your residence hall and it needs to be dealt with by higher ups.” ~ TheEmpressIsIn
“NTA. Why would they expect you to just open the door when you’re not expecting anyone, at unsociable hours?”
“Especially as a young woman living alone?”
“The resident support people are supposed to notify you, and they didn’t, which means they didn’t do their job, and then wasted the maintenance person’s time by not telling them you wouldn’t be home.”
“That’s not on you, OP!” ~ laughinglovinglivid
“NTA. Go to the office and say I want 24-48 hours notice going forward, as it will benefit everyone and avoid conflict.”
“In my 2nd year house a maintenance guy used to come whenever he wanted, so I complained to his manager and since then we had emails giving us 48hrs notice.”
“Don’t back down and take shit from anyone, if he’s there to fix something minor it shouldn’t be so urgent that he bangs on your door at 6am.” ~ jellybeans0000
Well OP, Reddit is with you.
Asking for a little warning about who is knocking on your door is not uncalled for.
Hopefully you can straighten this out with the college clan.