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Don't ignore the janitor

happychasing.substack.com

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Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#151

Post by laserlight »

FoomFries wrote: post #34
grammarnazzzi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Further, try to abide by their requests. If they want the trash can by the door to your office or cubicle on Thursday evening, move the damn trashcan to the door. Better yet, take your damn trashcan out to the damn dumpster your own damn self. Then we can save some damn money and fire the damn janitor. > They have 100 to empty; it's a trivial task for you. It's a trivial part of their job. They're getting paid for…

Trivialities in logistics and their impact on you as a person are two different things. If I added 500ms of latency to a keyboard (ssh, a bunch of VPNs, etc) I imagine a janitor would say ‘it’s a trivial part of your job, you’re getting paid for it.’ Yet that would cause many developers to pull their hair out.

Make the latency random for more fun.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#152

Post by xboxnolifes »

saurik wrote: post #133
bennyp101 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet you don't clear your table at McDonalds either :p

I actually do, but the reasoning isn't because I am deluding myself into thinking I am being kind to the employees (it is because I am trying to be kind to the customers, by making the food cheaper). I realize you want to be nice to other people, but you should realize you are doing it wrong (or at least doing it to a different set of people than you intended)... as noted, I treat the janitors with respect and don't…

Following the logic here and above, do you make sure to create very large and annoying to clean messes in office spaces / spaces were janitors will clean so that, by the nature of the work, pushes their employer to increase the pay for the job?

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#153

Post by RalfWausE »

inglor_cz wrote: post #114
lambdasquirrel wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the janitors in my high school once gave us a lecture on linear algebra. I don't know what he did before he left the former Warsaw Pact country he was from, but it was one of those whoa kind of experiences.

In the 1990s, when the former USSR had gone to shit, you could meet a lot of menial workers from the ex-Soviet republics who had academic degrees and could hold a conversation to prove it. I studied mathematics in Prague in 1996-2003. More than once I met a janitor or a taxi driver who, albeit with a heavy Russian or Ukrainian accent, knew what a uniformly continuous function was and what does the Chinese Remainder T…

Yep, can confirm that: The time i was working in an hospital in germany (around 2001) an older dude worked in the janitor department, turned out, he had an doctor degree in mechanical engeneering and was designing jet engines for MiG before the soviet union collapsed... and now was repairing toilets and changing lightbulbs.

Sad stories...

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#154

Post by napolux »

In my language we use the 3rd person as a sign of respect when we talk to others we don't know.

Many people when talking to janitors use the more colloquial 2nd person. That's really harsh if you ask me, unless you know them very well.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#155

Post by optimalsolver »

napolux wrote: post #154

In my language we use the 3rd person as a sign of respect when we talk to others we don't know. Many people when talking to janitors use the more colloquial 2nd person. That's really harsh if you ask me, unless you know them very well.

>we use the 3rd person as a sign of respect when we talk to others we don't know

Interesting. What language is that?

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#156

Post by rocqua »

theteapot wrote: post #85
Arainach wrote: post #49

This seems harder in our modern world where everything is contracted out to the lowest bidder. I've had great conversations with custodial staff at schools, parks, and other areas that actually hire the workers. At my day job, a giant corporation which hires its engineers but outsources its janitors, chefs, and so on, there's a totally different vibe. Even the few janitors that speak English are both rushed to comple…

> ... it means that even when I do say hello or hold a door or whatever I don't get a response. I'm sure they find it condescending. This whole post is kind of condescending TBH.

Are you arguing it is condescending to say hi to custodial staff?

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#157

Post by blueflow »

dollo_7 wrote: post #121
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 th…

> Like being the janitor is considered less

This is implied to be a bad thing... but is it really that important? My work is still work even when others don't validate me for it.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#158

Post by rocqua »

minimilian wrote: post #129
_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…

Quoted post unavailable.

It seems to be a result of they as a gender neutral singular pronoun. Which has a long history. Here oneself also works, perhaps even is more correct, but with the increased prominence of them as a singular pronoun, I can see why people write it like this.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#159

Post by Dylan16807 »

lhorie wrote: post #119
bigDinosaur wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had the money I would pay for a cleaner in my house, for sure. I value cleanliness and relationships enough that of course I will do chores myself absent a cleaner, but I have no illusion that I am not trading my time and that my time would not be better spent doing other things.

> I have no illusion that I am not trading my time I think that's kinda the point of the article. The people that ignore janitors surely are under no illusion that their time is better spent elsewhere than talking to cleaning staff. Rich parents in Dubai surely are under no illusion that it is better to hire full time nannies than to waste their time raising their own kids. The people in Wall-E surely are under no il…

You need a level of care for that kind of cooking and raising children. You don't need much care for 95% of cleaning.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#160

Post by Dylan16807 »

FoomFries wrote: post #34
grammarnazzzi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Further, try to abide by their requests. If they want the trash can by the door to your office or cubicle on Thursday evening, move the damn trashcan to the door. Better yet, take your damn trashcan out to the damn dumpster your own damn self. Then we can save some damn money and fire the damn janitor. > They have 100 to empty; it's a trivial task for you. It's a trivial part of their job. They're getting paid for…

Trivialities in logistics and their impact on you as a person are two different things. If I added 500ms of latency to a keyboard (ssh, a bunch of VPNs, etc) I imagine a janitor would say ‘it’s a trivial part of your job, you’re getting paid for it.’ Yet that would cause many developers to pull their hair out.

Latency on everything is rather different.

If you made my deploys go from 30 seconds to 35, I don't think I'd care very much.

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