[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"