Here’s the scene – it is a bright Sunday afternoon in the city. I need to use the ATM. I see a bank that has a single ATM in its entryway, separated from the street by a glass door that you need to use your ATM card to open. I see a woman inside using the ATM. I take out my card and enter the entryway, and take a position such that I’m far enough away from the woman as to not invade her personal space but close enough to establish that I am next in line, if I line were to form (it didn’t). Almost immediately, the woman turns to me and asks if I would do her the courtesy of waiting outside until she finished her transaction (or words to that effect). Which of course I do, since she obviously felt uncomfortable and I’m not a jerk.
Question – was she overly sensitive, or did I breach some kind of etiquette by entering the ATM area while she was still using it? Nothing has ever happened like this before, but it now occurs to me that I could have been breaching this rule my entire life, only no one has ever called me on it before. If it had been raining outside (it wasn’t) would I still have been expected to wait until she was done?
She is too paranoid. You did nothing wrong by standing inside the vestibule while she was in there as well. What would she have done if she were waiting in line with 3 or 4 other people, force them to all wait outside with her while the first person finished using the ATM?
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wait inside. The local branch of my credit union has an enclosed area between the main part of the branch and the parking lot, but it’s large enough that you can wait inside near the doors and still be a good 7 or 8 feet away from someone using the ATM. Most of the ATMs I’ve used have had people waiting much closer than that, and it really isn’t a big deal. I figure they can’t see what’s on the screen or the spot where I put in my PIN, and if they want to mug me it won’t matter if they waited 2 feet away or 15.
She was out of line and you were (are) a gentleman.
I am, of course, assuming that the vestibule was large enough for you to respect the usual 5 foot rule of separation in such a venue.
I’m with her. Unless it’s raining, when a bank is closed, the glassed off ATM area is the exclusive dominion of the person using it. The line starts and waits outside.
I think the answer is a depends how big the space is. I’ve used banks where there was 10 feet of vestibule where people waited inside. And my bank today has an clear glass enclosed cubicle sized area about 4x6 and I’ve never seen the line form inside.
The flaw here is that this is the entryway. If you’re going into the bank, you have to pass by whoever’s using the ATM. It’s not a privacy booth, and the ones I’ve seen have been huge, with something like 15 feet between the ATM and the far wall.
My vote is for overly skittish. You bet your ass that area is covered by a camera, plus the security door. There’s enough room for personal space, it’s a bad place for a robbery to go down, and you can’t get in if you don’t have a bank card anyway.
Unless it’s raining or something else to make conditions sucky, I usually wait 10-15’ behind the person at the ATM, so I probably would not have gone into the booth.
If there was a second moneygod, tough titty, I’m gonna use it when she’s using hers.
Here in the great white north all of the enclosed ATM vestibules are large enough for several people to wait in line out of the weather and anyone waiting in line outside of the vesitbule would likely have more issues with people not realizing they were waiting and forming a line inside.
I’m a single, 24 year old woman and I would find it really odd if I man felt it necessary to wait outside the little vestibule area. Come on in, just don’t leer over my shoulder or anything. I don’t mind.
I agree. She was too paranoid. What if the ATM was not enclosed, but on the outside wall of the bank? She’s far safer in an enclosed space that only the bank’s customers can access with someone else who is obviously another customer than outside where she could be mugged by a random stranger.
Her request was unreasonable. If faced with the same situation, though, I probably would have accommodated her but if it was raining, or frigid and windy or something, I’d say “it’s rainy/cold out there, I’ll stay here”.
And thank you for not calling it an “ATM machine”.
Thanks for all the responses. In response to the question about the size of the enclosure – well, I didn’t measure it, but it did seem to be on the small end. I’d say I was about five feet from her, and I wouldn’t have been able to put any more space between us before I left the vestibule.