Toxic. Skin and Eye Irritant.
My mom said "how can you stand it? Cleaning up other people's shit!?"
It isn't the work that bothers me. It isn't being hunched over toilets with shit and blood and piss all over them. I usually drift off somewhere else in my head and the cleaning just happens. I sweep, wipe down toliets, dust the tops of stalls, and skim the newspapers that are left hanging in the men's stalls (none in the women's!!). I do a lot of watching my reflection.
What bothers me about being a janitor is the feeling of being an object designed purely for work. If I can't stand the temperature of the building, if I have to leave early to pick up my kids, or if I don't want to use a certain product, I am 100% replaceable. The managers, used by the corporate higher-ups, do the dirty work of keeping people in line. They get paid a couple bucks more, can't join the union and are pitted against everyone else. When the company gets called out for their dirty work, it will be the low level managers who'll be fired.
In my rich kid, college world, jobs are supposed to represent a piece of who I am. I should find passion in my job. It should drive me succeed. But at my building, I don't think anyone's feeling real passionate or inspired. And I doubt many of my co-workers would include this job in a description of what makes them who they are.
It isn't the work that bothers me. It isn't being hunched over toilets with shit and blood and piss all over them. I usually drift off somewhere else in my head and the cleaning just happens. I sweep, wipe down toliets, dust the tops of stalls, and skim the newspapers that are left hanging in the men's stalls (none in the women's!!). I do a lot of watching my reflection.
What bothers me about being a janitor is the feeling of being an object designed purely for work. If I can't stand the temperature of the building, if I have to leave early to pick up my kids, or if I don't want to use a certain product, I am 100% replaceable. The managers, used by the corporate higher-ups, do the dirty work of keeping people in line. They get paid a couple bucks more, can't join the union and are pitted against everyone else. When the company gets called out for their dirty work, it will be the low level managers who'll be fired.
In my rich kid, college world, jobs are supposed to represent a piece of who I am. I should find passion in my job. It should drive me succeed. But at my building, I don't think anyone's feeling real passionate or inspired. And I doubt many of my co-workers would include this job in a description of what makes them who they are.
posted by wms at 3:08 AM
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