My job requires way more planning than I’m used to. For example, I had to figure out how to take a buttload of extra foam, some bleach, fertilizer, and a bag of moss on my bike with all the regular stuff. Tomorrow I have to figure out how to get 3 plants plus myself downtown. I guess I’ll ride my bike, but I have to stop at work first to get the plants. Fridays are normally really long, but I have a feeling tomorrow is going to last forever!
Today I was fixing a plant display at one place when this Chinese guy in maybe his mid-late 40s comes into the kitchen where I was and starts talking to me. He begins with “you are Asian?” and then “how long have you been in this country?” We discuss plants and then he starts telling me how “unhealthy” it is to get tattoos. He mentions that some people have tattoos all over their entire arms and that is not healthy. “But you are not going to get more? Just some stars?” he asked. I mumbled something about how I didn’t want a whole armful of tattoos because how was I going to explain it to my grandchildren. Chinese Dude went on about tattoos being unhealthy for a little longer and then asked about my grandchildren. It was pretty funny! I should have made something up. I mean, Loretta Lynn was a grandmother at age 28– I’m slacking! Not since Mah-gah-ret Chong invited herself to my Thanksgiving Feast has a Chinese person criticized my lifestyle so much!
Today was the day for that, though. The custodial staff in the building where I work is stocked with douchebags. They are all these short Latin dudes in their 30s-40s, and every single day someone comes up to me to bitch about something that usually has nothing to do with me. Last week it was how I let the plants get too dry, and how the janitor dude (we’ll call him Pedro) had to water these trees himself to heroically save them. I smiled and tried to explain to him that the trees in question had been dead for months, and watering wouldn’t do a thing, but Pedro’s the kind of person who, the second you say anything, he just starts talking louder and repeating himself. Today he came into the little café where I fill up my watering can and said, “you are not allowed to be in here. You must leave NOW. You can’t use this water.” After gleefully making me leave, he showed me a mop-bucket filling hose hidden behind some carts, which was actually 100x more convenient than the sink anyway. “You have to use this one. You’re not allowed to use that one.”
Not allowed? WTF? Like there are rules anywhere in this building, particularly ones that the janitors have the power to enforce. I had a Hick Moment. Hicks are always getting indignant about people telling them what to do, particularly if they are perceived as being in a lower station or whatever than they are. I was stewing. I do every week when Pedro rudely bitches about shit that’s none of his business. The janitor in another part of the building where I was working in the (gigantic) kitchen on some plants freaked out that I was making a mess. Hello? I was working on this giant countertop where there were crumbs all over the place and it was covered with 3/4 empty catering trays with various things like 1/4 cookies and the wilted dregs of salad were strewn around. I always clean up after myself, but he brought a trash bag and made me use it as a drop cloth, all the while watching me like a hawk to make sure I didn’t get any particles of dirt on the already completely messy counter.
I like my job, but it’s the janitors and security guards that make your life miserable. There’s always someone who wants to pull rank and not allow you into some room, or makes you go through extra security measures that involve waiting around forever for clearance just because they can.
I’m always really polite and friendly and apologetic and stuff. However, lately I’ve gotten tired of being a pussy. When I ride my bike down a bike trail, I don’t want to have to go slowly and quietly and have people glare at me for invading their personal space. I just want to be a bitch and get to where I’m going. The same goes for work. So, today I didn’t even attempt to be nice to Pedro, I just said, “this is the sink they told me to use” which of course did no good because Pedro never listens to anything I say.
Basically, I have a total low-station no-prestige job where I’m supposed to be invisible, and I just want to invisibly do my job. Ideally, the people in the buildings whose plants I take care of would think that elves came in the night and watered stuff. I get really sick of people constantly telling me how to do my job. It’s not just the security guards and janitors, either. People in the offices are always bitching and condescending to me saying how they “had to” water the plant because it was dry.
Let me go on a little rant here: You can poke your finger into the soil of a plant and it can feel dry, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is not the top 1/2 inch of dirt you’re making me feel to prove how right you are, it’s the dirt at the bottom of the pot where the plant’s roots are. This is why we use a soil probe– it lets us see how moist the dirt is at the bottom of the pot. Usually, the plants we have in offices don’t even need watering every week, and plants don’t like to be overwatered, so the secretaries and admin staff (corporate lawyers and stock brokers can’t be bothered with things like watering plants THANK GOD) are usually killing the plants when they “have to take matters into [their] own hands.”
Anyway, I’m losing my ability to be pleasantly subservient. I’ve been able to maintain a friendly, servile attitude towards the world in general for my whole life. My patience is finally wearing thin. I’ve been condescended to, been given the run-around, been transferred to random departments all in the name of trying to get some health care for the past couple weeks. Someday I’m going to yell at a pedestrian or roll my eyes at a security guard like they so often do to me while I smile and pretend to ignore them. I call it “taking the moral high ground.” In reality, it’s more like “I don’t want to escalate the situation.” I’m a master at diffusing situations, which is something that I’ve always been proud of. However, pretty soon I’m going start giving back what I get, just out of contempt for the human race. I know the world doesn’t need one more rude asshole, but it’s getting lonely up on the moral high ground.
