Thursday, March 29, 2012

Maybe janitors just don't ever eat??

I am kind of fucking MORTIFIED at the moment. This new job is pretty cool. I'm still "just" a secretary, but this time, my desk/cube is RIGHT by the kitchen. Bonus! Also, I'm in charge of a conference room and whatever leftover food there is, I put in the kitchen for the vultures to descend upon. I'm Vulture #1 - I get my plate before the creepers start breathing all over everything. Don't fucking judge me, I'm a germophobe and most Americans don't wash their hands nearly enough. You've read my buffet restaurant blog, yes? No? Go find it...it's down there somewhere.

I noticed the other day that, no matter WHAT I've put out as left-overs, the cleaning lady never touches it. Not one time have I seen her sneak a cookie or take a box lunch. I just now asked her:

Me: I notice you never take any food when there is food available in the kitchen.

Very adorable cleaning lady: oh, no! I don' feel right about eet.

Me: Why? You don't like it? I can understand that, if you don't like the food.

Very adorable cleaning lady:  no, I like eet. I just feel that I'm not supposed to touch eet.

Me: o_o Um, WHY THE HELL NOT? You work here, right? The food is for everyone, yes? I work here, you work here, we all have the same right to the same food that is left out for EVERYONE.

Very adorable cleaning lady: ok, ok. *grin* thank you. Now I feel better. I just thought I wasn't allowed to touch eet.

Have we done this??  Have we created this society and this culture of shame and displacement? I think we have. I think that I'm not the first person to notice the lady never touched the food. I bet I'm the 25th person who noticed. HOW can I be the first person to ever say "you're welcome to any food"? It's disgraceful that an employee would feel like such a low class of staff member that she wouldn't be afforded the opportunity to eat if she's hungry and the food is available. The fact that most of us turn a blind eye serves to reinforce her feeling of insubordination and "our" feeling of superiority, whether conscious or subconscious. We perpetuate the class warfare and we don't even know it.  But you know what? The Very adorable cleaning lady knows it.

No comments:

Post a Comment