This writer has talked about his history as a supermarket janitor before. It was a very hit-and-miss experience. There were days this writer thought, "Hey, this is a nice, low-stress job." Other days, this writer thought, "Why am I here and what am I doing with my life?" One thing this writer can say is that of all the custodial jobs he's had, the supermarket job was easily the worst.
Why is that? Because it was the one job where this writer ever questioned what he was doing with his life? Idiotic supervisors, asshole customers, and straight-up dumb crap all combined to make it not only the worst custodial job this writer has ever had, but the worst job of any kind this writer has ever had. Well, it's time to elaborate.
By now, everyone knows how this writer feels about women's bathrooms. They are ALWAYS more disgusting than men's bathrooms. One of the most disgusting things this writer has seen in a women's bathroom was a shit-caked tampon on the floor, just sitting there. Then, there was the time this writer walked in and saw a big puddle of piss in the middle of the floor, because heaven forbid somebody goes into the bathroom and uses a TOILET. Yeah...the fairer sex indeed.
Make no mistake, though. Men's bathrooms may not be as disgust, but they try hard overtake the women's bathrooms. This writer will never forget the day he was cleaning a men's bathroom, the smell of shit wafting through the air. He lifted up a plunger next to the toilet and there it was; a big, slimey turd. Granted, this was probably because a customer tried to unclog the toilet and the turd got stuck inside the plunger, but that doesn't more fun to clean it up.
And the garbage cans. Naturally, you'd expect garbage cans to be disgusting, because...well...they're garbage cans. But you wouldn't expect some of the bags to be as heavy as they wind up being. This writer remembers a customer (who may or may not have been a janitor in a previous life) walking past as he was emptying a trash can and saying, "it's almost like they put bricks in there sometimes." Well, low and behold, one time a bag tore partially, revealing there was, in fact, a brick inside. This was (for lack of a better word) retarded, because who just walks to grocery stores putting brick in garbage bags? No one with a brain that's functioning normally, that's for sure.
And those supervisors...so stupid. This writer said in a previous post that the dumbest people in the world work in supermarkets. This applies even at the top of the food chain. There was this one manager who always ordered too few garbage bags. The end result is that we'd always wind up running out of bags in a few days, instead of having enough to last the month like we should. He always wondered, "Derp, I wonder why we keep running out of bags." It's almost like you didn't order enough. Anyone that incompetent shouldn't be running a marathon, much less a supermarket.
One constant annoyance is that this writer often had to go searching for the things he needed to do his job. For instance, this writer would have to search for a broom for up to ten minutes sometimes. Heaven forbid a janitor have access to a broom. Other workers would often hide or bogard spray bottles for cleaning chemicals. Eventually, this writer wound up buying his own bottles just to ensure he'd have some.
As for asshole customers, this writer is actually friends with one. We'd be sitting in the store's café after this writer's shift and when it was time to leave, he wouldn't clean up after himself. Leaving empty paper cups. Leaving food containers. Leaving empty ketchup packets. His rationale for being a disgusting pig was he wanted to night janitors to, "Earn their fucking check." Having been a janitor, this writer can say that they do enough to earn their check without some douchebag making a mess just for the sake of making a mess.
And those are just a few memories from this writer's experience as a supermarket janitor. It wasn't all bad. There were more good days than bad days. The bad things stand out more, though. And the bad days were REALLY bad. Some of the things this writer saw (the plunger filled with shit was one of the tamer things) have scarred him for life. On the whole, this writer would say if you must work at a supermarket, try not to be a janitor.
Until next time...
