Work Smart, And Hard

 So I started my job at my current employer a little over a year ago. I came in as a janitor. The job was unfavorable, but it was work and most importantly it was money. Good money. In fact, this crummy job was the highest paying job I’ve had to date. Since hitting the ground at this job I’ve found the atmosphere to be ideal. There is no dress code, except for the fact that I deal with clean rooms so for every day but Friday and Saturday I MUST wear pants. There are no guidelines for tattoos or hairstyles, so if I wanted to come to work with a gay orgy tattooed on my forearm and purple hair, that was no big deal. I was pretty much my own boss at night. From 5-10:30PM nightly I would be on my own. No manager to hover over me and micromanage me into insanity. It was great!…except for the job itself. I am, after all, getting paid to scrub toilets and empty trashcans. 

     By the way, one thing I’ve learned is that there genuinely are people who have no respect for the working class. It’s amazing. People would go out of their way to make my job unnecessarily difficult because, fuck janitors, that’s why. It was disgusting. I would ask people to place their recyclable boxes in a certain location so I wouldn’t accidentally toss out something that needed to be saved. They wouldn’t. I would ask people to please not throw the boxes in their trash cans as that required me to fish them out and place them aside. They wouldn’t. Also, another side note, women are disgusting. Well, the women that work there. I was trained to empty the women sanitary napkin boxes. No big deal as they were filled with wax liners and hey, if it’s wrapped up than I’m good. No, the women could not be bothered with wrapping up their bloodied rags. Instead, they would stuff them, alongside a surreal amount of scrunched up toilet paper, inside the liner boxes until they were packed with pads, tampons and TP. 

     Anyways, I managed to have a conversation with the manager for the IT department a few months after starting and ended up landing some time interning with the IT guys a few days a week. I managed to easily juggle the two jobs, working one to two hours with IT, and then doing my janitorial duties. Then IT wanted me more so I could get more experience. I’m not going to lie, despite having IT background, I needed the experience as most of my knowledge has deleted itself out of my brain. 

     So I started interning three hours daily. It was tough, especially trying to keep up with my janitorial duties, but I was making it work. Finally, after a little over a half a year interning, they decided to bring me in. 

     Today is my last day as a janitor, and tomorrow is my last day in facilities. The new job comes with a hefty pay increase too, making me one happy camper. I don’t think many people will appreciate how hard I had to work to keep both departments happy as I balanced the two, but I can say, atop my soapbox, that hard work does indeed pay off. 

     I’m looking forward to starting my new chapter on Monday. Already things are rolling. I’m going to be going on a business trip in just two weeks to two different states, and then while I’m out, stopping to play in New York City for a day. I’m living the life I’ve dreamed about for most of my adulthood, and it’s all thanks to myself. I’m not sucking my own dick here, but a lifetime of dumb choices can really put the smart ones into a great perspective.