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Don't ignore the janitor

happychasing.substack.com

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Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#161

Post by yaseer »

RalfWausE wrote: post #153
inglor_cz wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

We can all joke about how Big Tech shovels some of the finest technical minds towards clicking ads.

But on the plus side, the size of the tech sector in 2022 does make for much more efficient job market for technical skills, than in decades past.

I would hope someone with a doctorate in mechanical engineering, who used to design jet engines, would be able adapt their skills to go work somewhere like Tesla, or a self-driving car company, or any other similar startup.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#162

Post by laserlight »

saurik wrote: post #138
xmprt wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes even less time if they were already planning on walking from the trashcan to a central location anyway.

Or you could actually try to help the janitor by NOT doing that so they still can get paid to do it. These are people who are often looking for hours and picking up multiple jobs and you seriously think you are helping them by doing literally any of their job for them? (FWIW, I also haven't ever experienced a janitor asking me to do this kind of stuff for them and I am actually the only person at the various building…

> Or you could actually try to help the janitor by NOT doing that so they still can get paid to do it.

Sounds to me like a very inefficient way of accomplishing tasks. Marginal cost of everyone doing their own simple task is less than the cost of employing a janitor. Furthering the logic, we should litter the place for more janitors to get employed.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#163

Post by napolux »

optimalsolver wrote: post #155
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?

Italian. :)

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#164

Post by ThePadawan »

ThePadawan wrote: post #130
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.

Note: Apparently they are also called "mood bands".

Also, the first shop I found [0] has stopped all international shipping due to Brexit.

I'm sure there's some sort of joke or lesson here.

[0] https://www.sensorydirect.com/mood-bands-pack-of-3

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#166

Post by II2II »

deltasevennine wrote: post #41
II2II wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This article is like, be nice to the people you step on. The first step is to not step on those people. Simple things matter, like following simple requests (e.g. the placing the trash can next to the door mentioned in another thread). Attitude matters too. There is a reason why some places call janitors caretakers: they are there to maintain the physical spaces people work in, not to clean up people's messes.

You don't get it. I'm saying every engineer is stepping on him by virtue of being paid 10x more. We all step on him but NONE of us acknowledge it. We're all posers, pretending that being nice to him makes any difference.

Janitors realize that the people they work around have no control over what they earn in the vast majority of cases. What people do have control over is their behaviour towards janitors, whether their direct interactions are respectful and whether they make the job of those tasked to cleaning up easier or more difficult.

Being nice also makes a difference in the sense that being nice makes a difference when you are working with your colleagues. Having healthy attitudes towards each other reduces stress and remove roadblocks to getting work done.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#167

Post by taneq »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #98
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…

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.

I had a great conversation with a hydraulic fitter once, turned out after a couple of beers that he was a chartered mechanical engineer in his home country, and that we shared a passion for heat engines. You never know what someone’s hiding under their hat.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#168

Post by throwaway0a5e »

I used to be a janitor. I preferred if you people ignored me. I don't want to have to tiptoe around not offending the sensibilities of people I have little to nothing in common with. If I wanted to interact with you people I could have made the same money operating a cash register instead of a mop.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#170

Post by technotarek »

PSA for the younger reader and / or parents: Try being the janitor.

I was effectively the janitor for a public ice arena outside Detroit from the age of 14 to 16. I cleaned public restrooms, as well as hockey locker rooms. I emptied large trash bins (thankfully before recycling was mainstream). I cleaned below the bleachers. That was probably the worst. But, if I may say, that experience helped mold me, for the better. People were rude to me, but it wasn’t quite as consistently bad as I might have thought. Perhaps it was my age that softened the treatment and showed slightly more humanity. In any case, I wear the experience as a proud badge of honor (as if you can’t tell). And yes, just be nice.

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