Being considerate

I had a work offsite in Denver, Colorado this week and took the Monday morning flight (which is never fun because it seems to be the busiest travel day of the week). We got on the plane and I got the honor of being in the middle seat where the airlines clearly were trying to maximize the number of people by pushing the seats close together. The row in front of me was the emergency exit aisle and so those people had probably 2-3 feet more legroom than the rest of us. However the main in front of me still decided to recline back fully into my lap. Now, I know that he can do that with his seat but it seemed to be incredibly inconsiderate to me who now has my laptop shoved between his head rest and my chest trying to do work. And, of course, I did not want to be “that guy” also so I did not recline my seat into someone else’s lap.

Despite my few gentle pushes on his seat he did not budge and I spent four hours trapped in my seat contemplating what it meant to be considerate.  I think the answer is that we need to recognize that there are other people and when we are fortunate (e.g. have extra leg room) we should consider other people as well and look to make their experiences a little bit better (e.g. not push back into the person behind them). BTW I am sure that he is also the same guy who takes both armrests and pulls on the seat in front of him to get up!