Unpleasantness

A worried looking man in an orange fleece came up to me at work today. Here's our following exchange:

"mumble mumble mumble.....there appears to be what can only be described as an 'accident' in the Gent's toilets."

"oh dear...I'll alert the manager".

I told the shop floor boss, who'd had certain reports about it, and told me he'd tell his boss to go take a look. Moments later, the boss boss paged me:

"so Bookshop Bloke, you know the quickest way to move up within the store..."

"I'm not cleaning the toilet."

"well, can you stand guard while I do, and make sure no one comes in?"

I stood around in front of the door, to make sure no one stumbled in. The boss, (a nice guy, laid back stoner type) had yet to emerge from the office.

Curiosity started to rear it's head. 'Don't look, there's no reason to look, why do you need to look, he'll just come in and clean it up' ran my thoughts.

Still no boss.

'Come on...where are you....?'.

So...

I peeped.


Yep, it was bad.

_________________

A few moments later, the hot blonde from the stationary stand ambles in my direction:

"Hey, how are you...why are you standing like that?"

"Oh no reason, no reason"

"It looks really odd, why you're standing there."

"Oh no reason.....how are you....I like your charm bracelet."

"Thanks. So why are you standing there?"

"Oh...there was like an 'accident' in the toilets, so I have to make sure no one goes in."

"Oh.

Is it bad?"

"Yeah...

it's bad."

______________________________

After he'd finished cleaning, the boss emerged and looked me in the eyes. We shared a glance. Mine was reassuring yet pitiful. His eyes turned downwards, ashamed.

"I feel all dirty and used."

"Just go home, go home."


All this got me thinking about cleaners. It's basically the worst job you can get in society, it pays the least, is disgusting and no one wants to do it. Of course, everyone know's it's essential, but it's never valued as much.

However, in store, whenever some kids pukes over the stairs, or does something else in the toilets, the people that clean up the mess are the managers. Our (bookseller's) opinons are that they don't pay us enough to clean it up, so why should we. If we got manager's salaries, we'd happily clean the stuff up. So the true value of a cleaner is £30K a year or so.

I suppose that's why plumbers cost so much.