Maintenance Guy V Janitor
Thursday, September 22nd, 2022 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioThe problem with being a maintenance guy, for me, has never been the work. I don't mind getting dirty, or wet, or even going down into a dark, webby crawlspace.
My problem's always been with the toxic work culture.
On the one hand, you have the corporate side of the culture, in which maintenance guys are always assumed to be lazy asses, who do nothing all day... so you get assigned work orders for every little job you do, and you have to describe in detail what was done, and how much time it took.
But they always assume that you're exaggerating the time it took to complete a work order, so on top of that you're usually assigned PMs, or Preventative Maintenance tasks, such as changing filters, checking belts, lubricating things, etc, etc... and you have to do additional paperwork to show you're keeping up with that.
There's always a system where you need to account for every last minute of your 40 hour work week, with your closed work orders, and your closed PM tickets, and it all has to be completed by the end of the pay period, or you'll get in big trouble.
And even if you stay current on all the paperwork, and don't let any work orders get too old, or lost in the shuffle... and even if you pass the spot checks they do to make sure you're filters aren't dirty, and your belts aren't fraying... there is still this assumption that you are somehow still cheating & slacking off, when nobody's looking.
--<>--
So that, guilty until proven innocent, mentality coming down from the top, leads to the other form of workplace toxicity, which happens between coworkers, who are all trying to justify their existence in comparison to one another.
The truth is, there usually IS time to sit around and put your feet up, even if you're on top of everything and truly doing your job. So the game is, to not get caught sitting around... more than anybody else is.
Another version of this is, to not get caught only doing what you like to do, but never doing what you don't like to do.
And you can deflect and shift blame around by playing rank cards, or kissing ass, or just staying under the radar... but it's never an easy game!
--<>--
Your team will always break down into three, EFFORT CAMPS;
--<>--
But then, among our three effort camps, there are four RANK TIERS;
--<>--
GRUNTS are just working guys who are trying to pay their bills, and happen to be handy. They work their scheduled hours, and that's it. And they usually work alone. Some grunts are go getters, but most are slackers, and a few awful ones are rats.
GURUS also avoid any overtime... they too just want to punch out and go home... but they don't want to do the menial tasks. They like to hang out in groups of three or four, and spend all day on one or two big jobs... but not too big! If it's not done by the end of shift... they get the grunts to button things up.
Most gurus are slackers. Very few are go getters. And some are rats.
ROCK STARS, meanwhile, live for overtime! If they can't get at least 20 hours of overtime, in a 40 hour week... they'll starve to death! They sleep with their phones, and will rush in, at 2AM for any little thing, if called.
But Rock Stars only do two kinds of jobs;
So they're always either, doing what they love... or getting a huge dopamine hit by being the hero at 2AM, or when Hallway C floods, or Rooftop Unit 9 explodes.
Either way, they're making big bucks... AND, they're immune to all criticizm.
No rock stars are slackers... all are go getters... and almost none are rats.
Rock stars are totally immune to rats, but trade tons of flack with slackers... especially slacker gurus.
They are contsantly trying to encourage go getter grunts, but won't rat on slacker grunts.
--<>--
But then, at the top of the heap, we have the KINGS... the BOILER ENGINEERS.
Boiler engineers stay in the boiler room all shift and... take care of the high pressure steam boilers. They putter around checking water acidity, and twisting valves... they sometimes open up a powered-down boiler and clean the tubes.
But most of the time they just sit in the control room watching TV... taking calls, and creating work orders, which they assign to the grunts, the gurus, and the rock stars.
The boiler engineer has authority over the other three tiers. If one calls you on the radio and tells you to do something... you have to do it... no matter who you think you are.
They are like Supreme Court Justices, above the fray of department politics, and they serve for life. Most are slackers. Some are go getters. Few are rats... but if one IS a rat... that's bad news for anybody who crosses them!
--<>--
By now you're head is likely spinning... as it should be!.. trying to keep straight the grunts, gurus, rock stars, and kings, and which of them are slackers, go getters, and rats.
So imagine the shitstorm of bickering, blame shifting, backstabbing, shit talking, and task dumping that goes on in such a department... and how much energy it takes to bob and weave your way through an ordinary work week.
And on top of that, you also have a mountain of paperwork to complete each week.
And neither of those things... the bobbing and weaving, or the paperwork... is part of the actual WORK, you were hired to do... which is to simply fix shit!
--<>--
Being a maintenance guy... even a grunt... is better money than being a janitor... but it comes with such a heavy cross to bear, in terms of toxic work culture.
And on top of all that, many maintenance gigs require you to be on call after hours for a week, and a weekend... and, depending on the industry, you may be required to work rotating weekends, and even rotating shifts.
------------{=0=}------------
Janitor... on the other hand... is soooo much less toxic and stressful!.. especially if you're one of only two or three in a small building.
A janitor has an assigned area of the building... that needs to stay clean. That's it!
It's very obvious whether or not you're doing your job... is the garbage out, and is everything clean? Yes? The Janitor did his job!
When everything is being cleaned... every single day?.. and dusted... once a week?.. guess what?... NOTHING IS EVER ACTUALLY DIRTY! Therefore it is impossible to show up a fellow janitor with your superior level of cleanliness!
There is neither slacking, nor over-acheiving.
There are no work orders. There is no paperwork.
You work alone... all janitors are equal... none of them give a shit what the others are doing... because there's no competition!
--<>--
The work is not gross... because as stated above, nothing's ever actually dirty. But you might think it's still monotonous... the same exact routine every day.
But it's not monotonous!.. because you just kind of go on auto-pilot! You don't have to use your brain very much... which means you can listen to stuff in earbuds, like books, or podcasts, or music... and you're always moving... so the time flies!
And even though janitorial work doesn't pay as much as maintenance... it still pays more than anything in retail, or food service, or any other... entry level, unskilled, indoor work.
And no single race or gender has a monopoly on the work. You're just as likely to see a male janitor, as a female janitor, and a white, or black janitor, as a hispanic, indian, or asian janitor.
But for some reason... it's a very overlooked job, which means they're always in demand.
I think it's an overlooked job because American culture itself, which is quite toxic, tends to glorify ambition. You're supposed to be miserable, constantly fighting off back stabbers as you claw your way up the ladder.
You're not supposed to just... do a job and go home!... especially not a job involving TOILETS! HOLY JESUS, NO!
------------{=0=}------------
All of this is why I went straight for the janitor listings.
And how, after four hours of searching, I landed a job the next day.
And why, now that my first week is almost done... I'm actually feeling a bit euphoric!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
My problem's always been with the toxic work culture.
On the one hand, you have the corporate side of the culture, in which maintenance guys are always assumed to be lazy asses, who do nothing all day... so you get assigned work orders for every little job you do, and you have to describe in detail what was done, and how much time it took.
But they always assume that you're exaggerating the time it took to complete a work order, so on top of that you're usually assigned PMs, or Preventative Maintenance tasks, such as changing filters, checking belts, lubricating things, etc, etc... and you have to do additional paperwork to show you're keeping up with that.
There's always a system where you need to account for every last minute of your 40 hour work week, with your closed work orders, and your closed PM tickets, and it all has to be completed by the end of the pay period, or you'll get in big trouble.
And even if you stay current on all the paperwork, and don't let any work orders get too old, or lost in the shuffle... and even if you pass the spot checks they do to make sure you're filters aren't dirty, and your belts aren't fraying... there is still this assumption that you are somehow still cheating & slacking off, when nobody's looking.
So that, guilty until proven innocent, mentality coming down from the top, leads to the other form of workplace toxicity, which happens between coworkers, who are all trying to justify their existence in comparison to one another.
The truth is, there usually IS time to sit around and put your feet up, even if you're on top of everything and truly doing your job. So the game is, to not get caught sitting around... more than anybody else is.
Another version of this is, to not get caught only doing what you like to do, but never doing what you don't like to do.
And you can deflect and shift blame around by playing rank cards, or kissing ass, or just staying under the radar... but it's never an easy game!
Your team will always break down into three, EFFORT CAMPS;
- SLACKERS, who aren't really slackers, they just know how to pace themselves.
- GO GETTERS, usually younger, who just work work work, and never take breaks.
- RATS, who are totally useless and do nothing, but survive by kissing ass to management and ratting everybody else out for whatever petty offense they can find.
But then, among our three effort camps, there are four RANK TIERS;
- GRUNTS, who do general maintenance, with no special certifications.
- GURUS, have a few certs for electrcal, plumbing, locksmithing, etc.
- HVAC ROCK STARS, who can do no wrong.
- BOILER ENGINEERS, who are like feudal kings.
GRUNTS are just working guys who are trying to pay their bills, and happen to be handy. They work their scheduled hours, and that's it. And they usually work alone. Some grunts are go getters, but most are slackers, and a few awful ones are rats.
GURUS also avoid any overtime... they too just want to punch out and go home... but they don't want to do the menial tasks. They like to hang out in groups of three or four, and spend all day on one or two big jobs... but not too big! If it's not done by the end of shift... they get the grunts to button things up.
Most gurus are slackers. Very few are go getters. And some are rats.
ROCK STARS, meanwhile, live for overtime! If they can't get at least 20 hours of overtime, in a 40 hour week... they'll starve to death! They sleep with their phones, and will rush in, at 2AM for any little thing, if called.
But Rock Stars only do two kinds of jobs;
- HVAC work they trained for at community college, and love doing.
- Jobs in which they can be seen as saving the day, and praised as heros.
So they're always either, doing what they love... or getting a huge dopamine hit by being the hero at 2AM, or when Hallway C floods, or Rooftop Unit 9 explodes.
Either way, they're making big bucks... AND, they're immune to all criticizm.
No rock stars are slackers... all are go getters... and almost none are rats.
Rock stars are totally immune to rats, but trade tons of flack with slackers... especially slacker gurus.
They are contsantly trying to encourage go getter grunts, but won't rat on slacker grunts.
But then, at the top of the heap, we have the KINGS... the BOILER ENGINEERS.
Boiler engineers stay in the boiler room all shift and... take care of the high pressure steam boilers. They putter around checking water acidity, and twisting valves... they sometimes open up a powered-down boiler and clean the tubes.
But most of the time they just sit in the control room watching TV... taking calls, and creating work orders, which they assign to the grunts, the gurus, and the rock stars.
The boiler engineer has authority over the other three tiers. If one calls you on the radio and tells you to do something... you have to do it... no matter who you think you are.
They are like Supreme Court Justices, above the fray of department politics, and they serve for life. Most are slackers. Some are go getters. Few are rats... but if one IS a rat... that's bad news for anybody who crosses them!
By now you're head is likely spinning... as it should be!.. trying to keep straight the grunts, gurus, rock stars, and kings, and which of them are slackers, go getters, and rats.
So imagine the shitstorm of bickering, blame shifting, backstabbing, shit talking, and task dumping that goes on in such a department... and how much energy it takes to bob and weave your way through an ordinary work week.
And on top of that, you also have a mountain of paperwork to complete each week.
And neither of those things... the bobbing and weaving, or the paperwork... is part of the actual WORK, you were hired to do... which is to simply fix shit!
Being a maintenance guy... even a grunt... is better money than being a janitor... but it comes with such a heavy cross to bear, in terms of toxic work culture.
And on top of all that, many maintenance gigs require you to be on call after hours for a week, and a weekend... and, depending on the industry, you may be required to work rotating weekends, and even rotating shifts.
Janitor... on the other hand... is soooo much less toxic and stressful!.. especially if you're one of only two or three in a small building.
A janitor has an assigned area of the building... that needs to stay clean. That's it!
It's very obvious whether or not you're doing your job... is the garbage out, and is everything clean? Yes? The Janitor did his job!
When everything is being cleaned... every single day?.. and dusted... once a week?.. guess what?... NOTHING IS EVER ACTUALLY DIRTY! Therefore it is impossible to show up a fellow janitor with your superior level of cleanliness!
There is neither slacking, nor over-acheiving.
There are no work orders. There is no paperwork.
You work alone... all janitors are equal... none of them give a shit what the others are doing... because there's no competition!
The work is not gross... because as stated above, nothing's ever actually dirty. But you might think it's still monotonous... the same exact routine every day.
But it's not monotonous!.. because you just kind of go on auto-pilot! You don't have to use your brain very much... which means you can listen to stuff in earbuds, like books, or podcasts, or music... and you're always moving... so the time flies!
And even though janitorial work doesn't pay as much as maintenance... it still pays more than anything in retail, or food service, or any other... entry level, unskilled, indoor work.
And no single race or gender has a monopoly on the work. You're just as likely to see a male janitor, as a female janitor, and a white, or black janitor, as a hispanic, indian, or asian janitor.
But for some reason... it's a very overlooked job, which means they're always in demand.
I think it's an overlooked job because American culture itself, which is quite toxic, tends to glorify ambition. You're supposed to be miserable, constantly fighting off back stabbers as you claw your way up the ladder.
You're not supposed to just... do a job and go home!... especially not a job involving TOILETS! HOLY JESUS, NO!
All of this is why I went straight for the janitor listings.
And how, after four hours of searching, I landed a job the next day.
And why, now that my first week is almost done... I'm actually feeling a bit euphoric!
°¦}
