I work for a tech company and the onsite office has a lobby that is staffed with security/front desk receptionists and baristas in a small cafe. The baristas will make you anything that you ask for and set out breakfast and lunch items every day. There are food trucks that come out 4 times a week and provide us with a small selection of meals. There is a janitor who comes in every day and cleans the kitchen, bathrooms, meeting rooms, and hallways. These services are all provided for by the company and thus free to us.
It’s worth noting that these roles are predominantly comprised of brown and black folks, while the roles at my company are predominantly white and light skinned folks.
I primarily WFH since the start of the pandemic as my commute is substantially longer than many of my coworkers. The general area that I live in is significantly poorer than where the office and most of my coworkers reside. So much so that crime is much higher in this county and I often get asked “are you ok over there?” I have to pay a bridge toll to get to the office every time I’m asked to come in. No it’s not reimbursed.
Every so often I’m asked to come in and when I do, I notice something very unnerving: almost no one acknowledges the people whose jobs are literally to wait on and clean up after us. People will just leave all their dirty dishes in the sink when there’s a sponge and soap RIGHT THERE and a dishwasher RIGHT THERE a few inches below the sink. People will straight up ignore the janitor or awkwardly walk around her. Literally today I watched as the CEO walked around her as she was washing dishes, dropped some silverware in the sink, and left the kitchen all the while talking with another coworker. If he acknowledged her or said excuse me I didn’t hear it. She moved back to the sink and pick up his dishes and begin to wash them.
I’ve cleaned bathrooms and slammed dishes. I’ve had to smile at ungrateful mfs while I waited on them hand and foot in the fear that I’d be fired if I popped off on a bad day. I’ve had rich entitled mfs sneer at me and remark how humiliating it was for me, someone they perceived to be a woman, to change out leaky trash. I’ve “laughed” with endless amounts of white collar workers on their white collar holidays parroting the same jokes and questions about why I’m working that day. The amount of harassment I endured due to being trapped at those jobs was unreal.
This was only 5 years ago for me. I still can’t believe how stupidly easy my work is now and how much more I’m getting paid for it. It’s stupid.
I say hi to every person in these roles at the office and ask them how their days are. Ask if they need help if it looks like they do. Will do easy clean up tasks if I see them while Im there. Today our janitor told me she was doing ok but she was very very busy. Just 5 minutes prior I had opened up the recycling and compost bins to throw away my lunch waste and found them bursting. I changed them without a second thought and suddenly was met with a thousand thank yous and “oh if I just KNEW where the extra bags were I’d have FOR SURE changed them” from my coworkers. This happens literally every time I do it.
MFS WHY DIDNT YOU LOOK FOR THEM YOURSELF ITS LITERALLY NOT THAT HARD TO FIND??? AND WHY ARE YOU THANKING ME WHEN SHE COMES IN EVERY SINGLE DAY AND EVERY TIME IM HERE I NEVER HEAR YOU SAY THANK YOU TO HER??????
Rhetorical question, I know why.
I know from past conversations that many of these people have never worked minimum wage or blue collar jobs so they literally don’t know what it’s like to be seen as a service rather than a human. Still, the lack of empathy astounds me.
I’m really angry and drunk rn so thanks for reading, I could keep going but will end here. Solidarity yall ️