Wednesday, September 12, 2007

An Overview of my Work Environment


I was inspired to write about my work place after my second trip to the bathroom today.
The bathrooms here are public. They are oddly located behind a giant pillar, so they aren't very easy to find and there's no direct way to access them, you have to circle the pillar. At any rate, I understand that bathrooms smell bad for obvious reasons. This bathroom, though, is the worst smelling public bathroom I have ever used, and I use it every day. I have never been one of those people who gets creeped out by public bathrooms and just sort of hovers over the seat. I always just go for it.
Not any more. I grab a big wad of toilet paper and wipe down the seat every time. I can't not. Nine times out of 10, the seat is all wet, which I don't understand. Is it from the hoverers? Is it from women who bring their little kids in there? The other thing I have never understood is why there is always toilet paper all over the floor. I can't imagine a situation in which I would have to throw toilet paper on the floor -new or used. Just throw it in the toilet, if you have to! A toilet is nothing but a trash can full of water. I'm not gonna make an episode out of this complaint, or describe the smell (because it's not a normal bathroom stench, it's got all kinds of exotic characteristics). I'll just say that when I was in there for the second time today, one of the janitors was in there complaining about how dirty it is (at first, she complained to someone, and when that someone left, the janitor just kept talking). She said that she didn't understand how someone could leave their own piss in the toilet and now flush but then when they come into the bathroom they won't use a stall that still has piss in it. So, to make herself feel better about this, she doesn't clean those stalls. "That's what you get," she said.

The rest of the situation here is this:
It is an office, so you're supposed to look presentable. I'd say that maybe 10% of the staff wears appropriate business attire, 50% wear casual -yet presentable- attire, and 30% wear styles and colors I never knew existed. This makes me feel okay about the days that I don't go all out with my business professional outfit.
The job itself requires little attention. My job revolves around New Student Registrations, which are not occurring right now. There were a bunch in August and they'll start back up in October, but September is slow. So there are days where I don't have an ounce of work. Most days I have an hour or two worth of work, but it's usually something like printing posters, which takes an hour to print, but I'm just waiting.
I wonder how many other people have jobs like mine. I could probably take on the responsibilities of three other people and still have down time.

Yes, I have a cubicle, but there's a second desk at the other end of it, which is shared by student workers most of the time.

2 comments:

Bill said...

Wow.
So, she doesn't clean the stalls with piss in the toilet?

theorbo said...

I love the janitor's rationale.