Entitlement

When there are two people vying for the same bed for a good night’s sleep, there would be some kind of awkwardness.  There are lots of sleeping areas here in the department but only one bed that has that more-than-acceptable mattress.  And the senior gets that bed. 

Tonight, I’m the female senior on-duty.  My fellow senior is a guy and so he gets to sleep on the carpeted floor – inhaling everything including the spores from that carpet.  Poor guy. 

It’s an unspoken rule since I started in this workplace and that was three years ago, that the senior gets to sleep in this (I’m on it already) bed.  But beforehand, I had to suggestively ask the female junior where she was planning to sleep.  I offered that she could sleep on the bed above me (it was a double-decker).  However, she said she’d sleep on the wooden bench, instead.

Oh I’m sure she was wishing I wasn’t on duty with her. 

I partly felt bad that she has to give up this (for which she has been sitting since the whole afternoon).  So I offered another bed but without the mattress.  However, she declined.  I don’t know why I had to make up an excuse to justify what I did.  But there was just one reason - I was entitled to it just because I went ahead of her in residency. 

But that reason, as she and I know, is not good enough.

This is one of the few times that I’ve used my seniority.  I don’t think I’ve used that before.  I have given up my integrity all for a good night’s sleep.