My boss is currently out of town, so because of this I have to go to the building where the area supervisor's office is and clock in there so I can then take the lovely Yukon that we use to transport the crew to our various buildings with me to the ITB. Not that any of that is really important for the purpose of the story, but it explains why I had a conversation with the area supervisor. I entered his office to get the key to the Yukon and he stopped me to tell me about some requests that were made by the people out at KBYU. He said that they asked if we could clean out the microwave tonight. He explained that technically it's vending's job to make sure that the microwaves are clean and functioning, but they obviously fail to do that most of the time. We both agreed that it would be best for everyone to make the sometimes whiny people at KBYU as happy as we can and clean out their microwave.
I decided that since I don't fully trust anyone on the crew that was there tonight to get the job done and do it right, I would clean the microwave out myself. That would take what, five minutes? And then I could retreat back to the Cluff where I have been spending many hours by myself over the past couple weeks.
We got there and went straight to our custodial cage. I had to search high and low for a dang squirt thing for a new bottle of glass cleaner. After finally finding one that worked I grabbed a rag or two and headed for the break room. And this is what I found:
Sadly a quick snapshot using my phone doesn't quite do the scene justice. It was the most filthy microwave I've ever seen, which I think is saying something, being a college student. Needless to say I retreated back to the cage to gather about 5 more rags and the Tough Duty. Twenty minutes later I had it looking considerably better, but it was still pretty stained and kind of gross.
What made me kind of scoff at the situation was the sign hanging above the microwave. It said something to the effect of "Please wipe out the microwave after each use. You wouldn't let your own microwave get this dirty, would you?" with a picture of a microwave not nearly as dirty as that one. I know we all get a bit lazy at some times, but really, is it that hard to grab a paper towel that's right there and wipe out the little bit of splatter your food just left inside?
It reminded me of the time that I was at my dance studio when I was 13 or 14. We were at an all day rehearsal one Saturday and our director came in all upset at us because the trashcan in the locker room was overflowing. She spent ten minutes lecturing us about how if we had any respect for the studio we would try to take care of it better by doing obvious things like emptying the garbage when it's spilling over the top. "I'm sure none of you let that happen at your house!" I remember sharing a glance with my friend that obviously said, "Well, actually...yes."
So I guess I'm basically a hypocrite.
Why is it though that we are generally so lazy that instead of exerting the little bit of effort to clean a tiny mess we let it build to a huge mess that takes forever to clean up? I guess it's just one of those mysteries of life. I'd like to think that I'm not always so bad at it, but from today forward I will make an extra effort to not be lazy in my cleaning. You should do it too. It will make some custodian's job much easier.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Nepalese dumplings are phenomenal.
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