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Don't ignore the janitor

happychasing.substack.com

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Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#121

Post by dollo_7 »

plaguepilled wrote: post #71

As someone who has worked a few service jobs: oh god please don't start a conversation with me if I'm on my lonesome. This advice needs a huge sticker that says 'mileage may vary'. Not everyone wants the silence to be punctuated with smalltalk.

The author's point of view seems to me quite condescending. Like being the janitor is considered less (and that, inevitably, everybody sees the janitor that way), so the author is trying to flip that view around (because he can, he is "not less").

Needless to say that being polite is out of the question here, and that I am sure that the author's intentions are not what I just commented, but I can't help to read it that way.

I would agree that "please" and "thank you" can take you far, however you don't just have to address them to the janitor, it's for everybody.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#122

Post by deelly »

johnfn wrote: post #108
rollulus wrote: post #105

This is the kind of content that could've been at LinkedIn for /r/LinkedInLunatics to drool over. The only thing that's missing is the vertical line spacing. Why is this on top of HN? "Mind blown, I just learned about the concept of treating people nicely regardless of their job"?

I don't know; the article is hardly self-aggrandizing (which is the primary attribute I see on /r/LinkedInLunatics), and certainly some of us could appreciate the reminder, myself included. Do we really have to be all intellectual, all the time on HN?

> Do we really have to be all intellectual, all the time on HN?

Actually why not? We have a lot of "just to evoke emotions" social media platforms out there.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#123

Post by geocrasher »

I recently witnessed a customer treating a food server at a small Chinese restaurant quite badly. It was a very upsetting because she is such a sweet woman who really takes her job seriously.

Next time she was at our table I commented to her that people who treat her like garbage are simply showing their inner self, which is in fact garbage.

Indeed you can learn a lot about a person by how they treat people who are in their service.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#124

Post by kieckerjan »

Call it professional deformation, but I came into this expecting an article on the sneaky ways in which automatic janitor services can mess up a digital system. I cannot count on two hands the number of times the culprit of mysteriously disappearing records/files turned out to be an overzealous janitor service. I will try to be nicer to them next time.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#125

Post by robocat »

deltasevennine wrote: post #12

I ignore the janitor because of the obvious wealth disparity between us. He works just as hard as me but is doing a job nobody likes and is paid less for it. It's completely unfair. And when I just see the janitor it's all I think about. This article is like, be nice to the people you step on. Yeah. I don't disagree with that sentiment.

About your flagged child comment: you are stating as fact you know how others think - you are wrong and even worse, you are rude. Are you assuming that others think like you do? Take care: I think your attitude is likely to result in strongly negative effects in your life.

Also, please follow the HN guidelines - the guidelines were created to help encourage intelligent discussion. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#126

Post by jack_pp »

deelly wrote: post #122
johnfn wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know; the article is hardly self-aggrandizing (which is the primary attribute I see on /r/LinkedInLunatics), and certainly some of us could appreciate the reminder, myself included. Do we really have to be all intellectual, all the time on HN?

> Do we really have to be all intellectual, all the time on HN? Actually why not? We have a lot of "just to evoke emotions" social media platforms out there.

I suspect most of HN doesn't use those

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#127

Post by jiggywiggy »

_8j50 wrote: post #106

I try to avoid strangers. If I was a janitor I wouldn't want people bothering me, especially because they feel bad for me or they feel guilty. You shouldn't be rude and I have no problem with and do nod/smile at cleaning/security/service staff but I am not good at smalltalk or whatever so I treat everyone the same and ignore people unless I know them and have something to talk about. I really dislike insincere or for…

Yeah it feels kind of condescending the way it's written.

However if it's not forced it's just the most natural to be kind to strangers, service role or note.

And you are kinda an a** if you are rude to random strangers, just they way the wrote it is awful.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#128

Post by kqr »

Okay, some people apparently need a reminder to be nice and friendly with other people. Great. But maybe not very interesting.

Here's something I find more interesting: software consultant/pioneer Gerald Weinberg (I think!) said that if you want to find out what's wrong in an organisation, don't talk to the people who work there – talk to the janitors, landlords, etc.

These people may not understand a single thing about the work that goes on, but they deal with the physical artifacts that enable the work, and the physical artifacts always tell a story.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#129

Post by minimilian »

_8j50 wrote: post #106

I try to avoid strangers. If I was a janitor I wouldn't want people bothering me, especially because they feel bad for me or they feel guilty. You shouldn't be rude and I have no problem with and do nod/smile at cleaning/security/service staff but I am not good at smalltalk or whatever so I treat everyone the same and ignore people unless I know them and have something to talk about. I really dislike insincere or for…

No post body was provided.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#130

Post by ThePadawan »

plaguepilled wrote: post #71

As someone who has worked a few service jobs: oh god please don't start a conversation with me if I'm on my lonesome. This advice needs a huge sticker that says 'mileage may vary'. Not everyone wants the silence to be punctuated with smalltalk.

I really wish those flippable red/green autism-awareness bracelets ("Speak to me"/"Please don't speak to me") had become ubiquitous already.
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