On my desk this morning I found this lovely, anonymous sticky note:
It’s easier for the custodian if you leave you trash can by your entrance to the cubicle. Its not like you have such a big space. You can just roll back and dump your paper.
I’m all a-twitter over who wrote it, colleague or custodian? I’m betting custodian because I can’t really imagine my colleagues acting so anonymously. Still: the intrigue! The absurdity!
Def custodian. Those sorts of thoughts about the economy of movement as regards wastebaskets generally only occur to people who handle them for their job.
by JH—Nov 28, 09:44 AM
1 is right: I shared it with teh colleagues, and nobody copped to writing it.
It used to gall me that my wastebasket was moved from where I like to keep it, but then I just accepted it as part of my everyday routine. Who knew that the custodian was getting his panties in a wad over the very same thing? I definitely never saw the custodian’s placement of my wastebasket as a prescription for moving it permanently, though apparently I should have.
Now I’m in a conundrum. Because I sympathize with the plight of the working class, I take no pride in making the janitors’ work more difficult. At the same time, “its not like [I] have such a big space,” so I can’t imagine that the nuisance would merit the stern Post-It. What do I do? How do I keep the trash convenient to everyone?
by greg—Nov 28, 09:57 AM
Just put the wastebasket where he wants it and let the whole thing blow over.
by JH—Nov 28, 10:06 AM
I need ideas, JH, not surrenders.
by greg—Nov 28, 10:09 AM
But my idea is surrender. Having been a peon for most of my working life, I know it’s always a bad idea to antagonize them.
by JH—Nov 28, 10:14 AM
But that’s the thing: I don’t want to antagonize, but I also don’t want to surrender the convenience of having my wastebasket at-hand. Especially with my cold, I’m going through a box of tissue a day, and it is annoying to “roll back and dump my paper.”
I’m thinking a subtle rearrangement of my cubicle furniture might suffice.
by greg—Nov 28, 10:19 AM
Sure, sure. And all Iraq needs is a subtle rearrangement of our troops. Then everything’s going to be hunkydory.
by JH—Nov 28, 10:23 AM
Look, just because your lack of commitment to the Surge is tantamount to stabbing America in the back doesn’t mean my plan to selectively follow this janitorial edict won’t work.
by greg—Nov 28, 10:27 AM
come on… move the wastepaper basket at the end of the work day to the entrance to the cubicle and then wear it on your head during the work day!
by Balthasar Gracián—Nov 28, 11:40 AM
I like BG’s idea.
Actually, maybe you should check out your colleagues’ cube/wastepaper basket arrangements….Do they keep their cans close to the opening? If so, you really have been bucking the trend and should probably suck it up and conform.
by kl—Nov 28, 02:53 PM
My colleagues have impoverished senses of arranged space. I wouldn’t take their advice about interior decorating if it was free.
by greg—Nov 28, 03:42 PM
i sense kl that you have married an office snob!
by Balthasar Gracián—Nov 28, 03:43 PM
Someone besides the janitors has to have standards around here.
by greg—Nov 28, 03:53 PM