I like to clean offices, it’s calm, nightly quiet, and I get satisfaction from making things shiny and clean. That does not make me a non-person. Last night, I was cleaning the men’s bathroom, had the door propped open and on my hands and knees, was scraping goo off the floor. And you, big man in a suit, you just stepped over me as if I were a lump of crap with hair and a cloth. When I asked if you wanted the door closed, you didn’t even offer a civil response—in fact, there was no response. I felt so invisible, I wondered if you’d even notice me zippering up your pants with your delicate parts nipped good and tight. Well, big man, you might want to know that I have a masters degree, that my paintings sell overseas, that I like four-leaf clovers and pressed coffee, and can quote Shakespeare if you ask.
Don’t assume that a cleaner is a low class imbecile with no other means to make a living. I just happen to like making things pretty again. It’s something I’m proud of, despite the people like you who assume I don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground. So stepping over me… wow, that’s cold. I bet you’re the same freak who throws gum in the urinal and pisses on the wall, and leaves me such lovely ‘presents’ in the toilet. I mean, c’mon man, do I need to see what you had for lunch? Cleaners need lovin’, too, ya know? What we don’t need are your asinine assumptions curtained by ignorance and myopic assumptions. So you, Mister Man, you are a stuffed suit. I don’t like you one bit. I’m pretty resilient to your types, but I can’t remember anyone ever being as rude and crude as were your actions that yes, hurt me. Shame on you! Shame shame on you! —Cleaner with Brains
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.
don’t worry op, that’s the kind of soulless fecker who probably steps over people bleeding on the sidewalk. he’s the loser not you
Never quite understood the mentality of looking down on someone who has a job. I hope I never do.
If you can find out this jackwagon’s name, have a bunch of posters mimeographed and put up in all the washrooms.
“PLEASE DO NOT THROW GUM IN THE URINALS.
IT MAKES IT TASTE FUNNY AND DIFFICULT TO CHEW”
THANK YOU – SUITY McARROGANT”
In a society where a drunken sot gets front-page news, what can you expect? More and more our idols are people who spew hatred and violence, instead of people who triumph over adversity or are positive contributors to society. When idiot musicians and gangstas are the people our youth look up to then people who work day-to-day and aren’t killing dogs or shooting pistols in public are dirt under their feet.
Damn, he obviously never learned the cardinal rule of workin’ in an office: make nice with the cleaners.
Thems can fuck you over. Lots.
Also: good for you for doing what makes you happy!
Am I the only one who thinks the man in the suit could have been deaf? Just because he was wearing a suit, you think that he’s looking down on you because you’re a cleaner? Don’t be judgin’ then bitch about judgin’.
Just because somebody wears a suit doesn’t mean they have class or intelligence.
It just means they’re wearing a suit.
Just because someone likes 4 leaf clovers, sells paintings “overseas”, etc, doesn’t make them the bees knees either. To think so would imply(to me) that the cleaner on the floor who can’t make these claims really *is* dogshit to be stepped over.
And maybe Suitguy had a bad day, lost his cat, whatevs.
Slack-cutting goes both ways.
Now get the plunger to stall 3. We got a floater.
I think OP was just playing on the stereotype that people have developed that cleaners are uneducated pieces of trash, I don’t think they were trying to judge.
I think by putting their skills and accomplishments out there, they were simply stating that there’s often more than meets the eye.
Maybe the suit guy was deaf… but I think it was more about body language than anything and being deaf is not excuse for being a jerkwad.
And having a bad day doesn’t mean it’s OK to take it out on anyone.
I hate it when people use that excuse.
Still luvs ya, wheelie. Also: I’ll be workin’ in yo’ hood so we’ll have to do lunch! ^_^
TOO many times, do the lowly peon get overlooked, by those of the public, that think they are better. I used to clean for a company in Halifax a few years back, and know well the feeling of being a non enity.
Lawyers are the worst examples, followed closely by women in offices. Most are pigs to the highest leval, and I would love to see their homes.
Yes person writing, i can really feel for yo, and the pay is usually shitty low.
you should’ve pointed at his wee wee and said “is that all you’ve got?”
A “masters degree?”
That wouldn’t be in “Public Relations,” would it?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
No, sorry, I don’t buy the deaf/bad day excuse. You don’t step over somebody while they’re working and not make an effort to communicate. “Excuse me” or a tap on the shoulder, not that difficult. He didn’t want to communicate plain and simple.
i have a little crush on you. You are on the road to some nice hunk of zen…
Most times when I look at them I feel like they 100% have the better job because they don’t have to deal with office politics and all of the garbage that comes with it.
I don’t talk to the cleaners at work because I feel like I would be bothering them.. but to ignore someone the way this person did is completely awful.
OP, you are clearly better than that asshole and you know it!!
Obviously this guy’s mother and father missed the part where they were supposed to teach their kid some basic manners.
I know my parents sure did. It didn’t happen often, and usually only when I was with my bad ass cousin, but when I wasn’t polite to someone my parents didn’t get mad — no, they shamed me into feeling bad for being rude. And I was made to apologize every single time I was saucy and disrespectful to anyone.
And it doesn’t take THAT much effort to acknowledge someone’s existence and at least treat them like they’re a human being.
“The power of dirt: an exploration of
secular defilement in Anglo-Canadian
culture”
PETER CLARK Dalhousie University
and
ANTHONY DAVIS St. Francis Xavier University *
Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 26, 1989
In this essay we contend that the culturally defined boundaries distinguishing the pure from the impure constitute a central dimension of identity construction and maintenance. Moreover, in cultures characterized by forms of structured social inequality, those occupying positions of advantage and domination are positioned to reaffirm their situation through the management of identity violation, i.e. defilement. To develop this thesis we focus on the cultural identity dynamics of gender relations and gender inequality. In particular, we present data which permit us to define thresholds of repugnance and finicality by gender.
Masters degree and cleaning the shitter? Must be in one of those non-marketable fields of study. Why would you spend $50k and more to scrub toilets, clean up piss, and replace urinal pucks? You won’t find a decent job with that on your resume.
RSVPs
: blahblahblah – July 30, 1:40PM
“finicality?”
It’s probably no consolation to you, but this suited oxygen thief is very likely behaving the same way to everyone below him in his perceived foodchain. It’s got nothing to do with you being a cleaner, it’s got everything to do with the fact that you can’t give this guy orders or inflate his bank account.
*Everybody* has to deal with assholes like this. I’ve worked around people in office environments that would silently stare at you like you’re an impertinent idiot the one day, when you attempt to say Hello, and a few days or few weeks later, when they find out who you really are and what position you have there, or that you work for the boss of *their* boss, they get all artificially friendly. Well, fuck ’em.
I know it sucks, but look at the upside: I’m sure you do encounter plenty of people who don’t look down their nose at you. Reflect on that, and forget about the wastoids.
“oxygen thief” very funny
OB, most of this bitch takes place in your head.
Some guy stepped over you to get to the crapper, and he sounds like he has no personality.
Big deal. Get over it.
Sounds like OP is insecure with his/her Job. He (suit & tie man) was probably thrown off that you were on your hands & knees in front of a toilet and didn’t expect you to be there. What the hell was he supposed to do? Get on his hands & knees and help you scrape the gum? He didn’t respond? big deal.. he probably felt awkward that you were there.. so that makes him less a human too? pffft.
You just sound like you are very insecure with the job you chose and was embarassed that a guy in a suit and tie saw you cleaning toilets. Thats YOUR problem …not his.. either get a job that you aren’t embarassed to be seen doing or shut up and keep scraping that gum and be proud of your job.. NOT arrogant. YOU were the “snob” in the end.
Hey realist — try dealing with some of the law clerks out there. Or a first year associate. In toronto.
Talk about self-inflation.
OB must have an MBA.
Love ya OP