Zhanga: October 2, 2006

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Monday, October 2, 2006 (4 comments)

I think I've finally figured out what I want to do when I get out of college. I am going to be a janitor.

Let me give you some background info. There are seven guys who share one bathroom on this part of the hall. At the beginning of the year, we held a vote to determine whether or not the bathroom would be locked. In order to be unlocked, the vote had to be unanimous. It wasn't. So we have six (I'm guessing) who want it unlocked, and probably one who doesn't. It's annoying to have to bring a key with you every time you have to pee or (especially) shower, so a few days into the semester, somebody stuck a compact clump of paper towel into the door lock thingy (the thing that goes in and out when you turn the knob). That way the door will close but the lock won't catch, so you can just push the door open without needing to use a key or even turn the knob.

Well, the housekeeping staff has been annoying and has been removing the paper towel pieces every few days. Whoever's putting them there usually replaces it just a couple of hours or maybe a day after it gets removed. Well, today the hall got a fun email:

Of course, we don't find out that this is actually a problem until today, when $132.12 has been piled up, but that's a different rant. Also for another rant is how this is considered "damage." They must use some definition of "damage" that I'm unfamiliar with. I guess forgetting to flush should count as damage, too.

I haven't found a coin in the lock yet, but I do see paper a lot. The paper takes approximately 4 (four) seconds to remove. I'm guessing that removing a coin would be even easier since you can't accidentally tear it. At $17.33, that's $15597/hour. At $26.40, that's $23760/hour. Let's say I were to do freelance programming. I might make in the range of $80-100/hour for that (just a guess). If I were really good, I might manage to get a 6-digit salary after working in the same place for 15+ years. On the other hand, if I were to remove paper from door locks for a living, then in half a day I could make a whole year's worth of programming money.

Don't even get me started on outsourcing. You simply can't outsource removing-paper-from-door-locks to India the way you can outsource software development. I'll bet the housekeeping got to keep those coins they removed, too. In short, being a janitor > anything I might actually become.

Seriously though, what are these charges for? There are regular housekeeping staff who work here. Surely they are paid by salary and not by how many random items they can remove from random fixtures around campus. Maybe the regular housekeeping staff lacked the requisite skill set and they had to call in contractors to remove the paper with high-precision machinery? I have no idea.

This is so stupid.

1:26PM

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