[gist]

I get a kick out of stories like that but I would wonder about this:

>Bill Gates is being taken on a guided tour of the product support department's new office building, and during his visit, he asks one of the people manning the phones, "Mind if I take this call?"

In particular "Mind if I take this call?".

Mind?

The entire idea of the head of a corporation (such as Microsoft in particular) asking permission in that way as if the employee who works for him would have some reason to object or be offended. As if he is butting in front of him in the line at a store or taking his last 10 minutes on a jetski.

[michaelt]

Presumably he also took over the employee's desk, computer, chair, telephone headset, photos of wife and children, and so on.

"Mind if I..." would be a normal, polite thing to say in such a situation.

[gist]

It's not the employee's desk. It is Microsoft's desk (and Bill is defacto Microsoft) He wasn't in the employee's house. He is using the desk that Microsoft provided for him. He is not 'another guy doing tech support asking to sit in and do a job'.

[kempbellt]

Unless it is a part of the company culture you signed on for, relationships between employees and employers are never black and white, "We bought this desk and phone, so we reserve the right to come over and just snag it out of your hands whenever we want"

Basic human decency always enters the equation

[MaulingMonkey]

I'm going to be annoyed if a coworker swipes company gear I need to do my job effectively, or gets a headset I'm using all sweaty. And my desk certainly has personal effects which do not belong to the company - which could be anything from family pictures to keyboards to extra monitors.

Maybe there's no reason for the employee to object or get offended, but that also means there's no harm in asking permission since the answer will be yes. And there's harm in not asking permission, even though the answer will be yes. You have a couple of choices:

You can treat your employees like peers to get along with and respect. Even if it's more optical illusion than reality, this can make for happier - and thus more productive - employees.

You can treat your employees like minions to boss around. Not exactly the most motivating of environments for your employees. They could try and make their unappreciative boss a little happier... or they could browse facebook a bit more. And maybe steal a few pens to stick it to the man. Maybe not a big deal for a once-off interaction, but even that sets an example for your managers and their not so once-off interactions with their "minions"...

[Nimitz14]

It's called being polite.

[gist]

In a certain context it can also be considered patronizing.

Let's imagine someone is doing heavy labor and digging ditches. More appropriate to just say 'let me do that for you'. Rather than 'mind if I do that for you'.

Bill must know it's not a great job to take support calls constantly and deal with the aggravation. No doubt that there are people (like with any job) that like the job and are fine with it. But those are most likely not people that Bill associates with, is friends with, or respects. The contrast between the parties is where the 'patronizing' comes in.

Another example is a Physician in a hospital. If someone is cleaning bed pans and the Physicians says 'let me do that for you' it means one thing. If they say 'mind if I do that for you' it means another thing.

[mjfisher]

Or it's showing genuine respect for your employee's job, autonomy and skillset, and implicitly acknowledging that you probably aren't going to do as good a job as they would.

"Mind if I take this call?" could easily be met with "would you mind taking the one afterwards? I know who's dialling in and we're just wrapping up a long-running issue"