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Don't ignore the janitor

happychasing.substack.com

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Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#101

Post by nl »

deltasevennine wrote: post #40
didericis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think you’re stepping on the janitor, maybe you should stop. It’s a job, not a caste. When you apply to work somewhere as a janitor you expect to work as a janitor. Don’t pity people doing a job that pays less, you have no idea what their story is or why they’re doing what they’re doing. And if you think you aren’t adding to collective wealth and making salaries go further and further than they have before by…

Quoted post unavailable.

This is an extremely weird take.

I know people who are much richer than me. I don't feel patronized when they say Hi to me.

The fact that a person is doing a lower paid job doesn't mean that others are stepping on them.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#102

Post by Flankk »

Barrin92 wrote: post #73
greendude29 wrote: post #39

Is...being decent to everyone regardless of job status in life a new thing? Has tech come so far that we have to re-teach ourselves the basics and then brag about how we smile at "service staff"? Up next in a techbro blog post: "I have discovered that money doesn't buy happiness, and that being an asshole isn't a good thing."

as a tech guy who comes from a family of blue collar and service industry workers I always have to laugh a little bit about pieces like this. It always reads like someone just went on a safari and found an exotic animal or found themselves in Good Will Hunting. Like, more than half of the population doesn't have a college degree. Store clerk, janitor, delivery driver etc are the most common jobs around, I always wond…

No post body was provided.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#103

Post by bigDinosaur »

lhorie wrote: post #66
bigDinosaur wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of replicating this in a modern office is quite the amusing image. It strikes me as both true and false: - no job is truly beneath me, and sometimes I have to wade into the weeds so better be prepared - it's also a way to just get essentially free or cheap(er) labour by increasing the duties of those whose time would be better spent elsewhere.

It's not all that different than going home and doing the cooking or the laundry. Surely you don't leave housework to your partner "because your time would be better spent elsewhere", right? We don't think of brushing our teeth as "wading into the weeds", it's just an integral part of life for us. Cooking and laundry is (hopefully) just as much an integral part of life. Similarly, the Japanese famously don't have pub…

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.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#104

Post by renewiltord »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

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. They have 100 to empty; it's a trivial task for you. We can get wound up in ourselves and forget to hold a door, or avoid spilling crumbs on our carpet, or log out of our workstation, or use a different hallway when the floor is being waxed, or to move the…

I never did any of this stuff but got along with them all. Theyplayed with my Oculus Quest, we'd shoot the shit sometimes, shared some of their bomb ass guacamole.

Everyone's got their mode of interacting with people. I'm really not into this shaming people for not matching your interaction mode thing.

This sanctimonious ostentatious virtuosity is really too much.

To make it worse this is truly junk content. God help me.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#105

Post by rollulus »

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"?

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#106

Post by _8j50 »

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 forced displays of kindness although one should force themselves to be polite when appropriate if it doesn't come naturally.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#107

Post by dazc »

UIUC_06 wrote: post #37

In addition to janitors & wait staff: you can chat with the homeless people, too. You don't have to ask them about "their situation" or offer to help them. Weather, sports, the traffic... just treat them like a person who's not invisible. Before anyone jumps up & objects: yes, there are a lot of homeless who don't want to talk to you, or who are downright dangerous. You can avoid those.

How do you pick out someone as being homeless? I'm in the UK and (accepting in the US it may be different?) there is a common misconception that people who sit in shop doorways begging for money are 'homeless' people when, in fact, they are usually just people who have a drug habit they need to continually finance.

The real homeless people are doing their best to blend into the background and not to look homeless.

[I used to be such a person]

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#108

Post by johnfn »

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?

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#109

Post by cma »

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"?

> 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 see anything wrong with the post. Treating nicely can surely be extended to its author as well.

Re: Don't ignore the janitor

#110

Post by josh_fyi »

You should certainly be nice to the janitor: They are not part of office politics and so can afford to just interact naturally and decently.

Conversely, people are careful to stay on guard to threats and opportunities in interpersonal power-games, and so when they see the janitor, the fact that politics does not apply makes them relax and behave naturally: This is either rudely or nicely, depending on the individual's character.

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