But many times there are others who also notice the hard work and often distasteful things that have to be cleaned. In the article that follows, Bjorn Bergeson writing for the Montana Kaimin shared his insights and thoughts on what custodians often face. As a custodian I always appreciate it when others back us up and share positive comments about an often undesirable job.
Unsung Heroes: Custodians Keep Us Clean
Let's face it, humans are gross. We create messes everywhere we go, littering the world and leaving a path of trash, filth and disgusting bodily functions in our wake. And by and large, most of us would rather pay someone to clean up after us than take any kind of personal responsibility and do it ourselves. Thankfully, there are custodians. These people take on our disgusting burdens and help us get through the day.Custodians carry us in bleach-drenched glory, and most of the time they do it without any additional thanks. Some of the time they even try to bribe us to be well behaved.“I hand out candy as a way of sucking up, so they treat me nice,” Lori Blotzke said while she cleaned the fourth floor bathroom at Jesse Hall.
Most students are well behaved, she said, but a few take a while to figure out that other people clean up after them.
Blotzke has been working as a custodian for 18 years at the University of Montana. Overall, she said it is a good job with good co-workers and benefits, and overall the students are great. But then, someone vomits in the sink.
“Oh my heck, what a mess that was,” Blotzke said.
On the seventh floor of Jesse Hall, Jolene Hult sprayed out the bathroom shower stalls with a garden hose. Hult’s been at it for 28 years, with 22 spent at the same dormitory. She said her job is easy because she stays on top of cleaning and has a good relationship with her co-workers. But for Hult, the best part is the influx of students she meets every year.
“You get to know them, and some of them are very appreciative about what we do, and that makes you feel good about what you do,” Hult said. “You get to hear about different places around the world, because they’re from so many different places.”
Though she likes them a lot, there have been some problems over the years. Like the time she had a falling out with an entire floor of Jesse Hall.
“I said something about the resident assistant looking like a poster child of Beef-Hunk magazine,” Hult said. “After that they went out of their way to make my life a nightmare for the rest of the year.”
Overall most of the students are pretty nice and respectful of her and her crew, but Hult has found some exceptional messes.
“A girl had a ferret that was allowed to run free in the room,” she said. “There was ferret stuff all over. It took us 13 hours to clean that room.”
It takes her and a three-person crew a handful of hours to clean all 11 floors of the hall.
Over at Don Anderson Hall, Jessica Weathers takes a sponge and scrubs coffee off the wall near the top of a stairwell. Weathers is a newcomer at custodian work compared with the veterans of Jesse Hall. She said she enjoys working the night shift when it comes to custodian work, because she can earn while her three kids are asleep.
Weathers cleans several of the class halls on campus late at night after all the students have left. She said the public restrooms are usually ok compared with other places she has worked.
“I had a sewer line explode at a place I worked,” Weathers said. “I’ve had some pretty bad bathroom experiences.”
Of course the most burning question of all concerning public restrooms is the long-standing debate over who is grosser in them: men or women.
After speaking with three female custodians and one male, the scientific answer to that question can be put to rest. Women have the worst restrooms.
“It’s the smell. It smells so much worse,” Weathers said. “It’s like the perfume and their body smells. It's just bad.”
Still, the men don’t fare much better. The custodians at Jesse Hall all said it seems to depend on the year as far as who is worse. Sometimes the men are much worse. And no matter what, bathrooms are gross disease-ridden spaces that only the most dedicated custodians can keep us safe from.
Thank your janitors.
Most students are well behaved, she said, but a few take a while to figure out that other people clean up after them.
Blotzke has been working as a custodian for 18 years at the University of Montana. Overall, she said it is a good job with good co-workers and benefits, and overall the students are great. But then, someone vomits in the sink.
“Oh my heck, what a mess that was,” Blotzke said.
On the seventh floor of Jesse Hall, Jolene Hult sprayed out the bathroom shower stalls with a garden hose. Hult’s been at it for 28 years, with 22 spent at the same dormitory. She said her job is easy because she stays on top of cleaning and has a good relationship with her co-workers. But for Hult, the best part is the influx of students she meets every year.
“You get to know them, and some of them are very appreciative about what we do, and that makes you feel good about what you do,” Hult said. “You get to hear about different places around the world, because they’re from so many different places.”
Though she likes them a lot, there have been some problems over the years. Like the time she had a falling out with an entire floor of Jesse Hall.
“I said something about the resident assistant looking like a poster child of Beef-Hunk magazine,” Hult said. “After that they went out of their way to make my life a nightmare for the rest of the year.”
Overall most of the students are pretty nice and respectful of her and her crew, but Hult has found some exceptional messes.
“A girl had a ferret that was allowed to run free in the room,” she said. “There was ferret stuff all over. It took us 13 hours to clean that room.”
It takes her and a three-person crew a handful of hours to clean all 11 floors of the hall.
Over at Don Anderson Hall, Jessica Weathers takes a sponge and scrubs coffee off the wall near the top of a stairwell. Weathers is a newcomer at custodian work compared with the veterans of Jesse Hall. She said she enjoys working the night shift when it comes to custodian work, because she can earn while her three kids are asleep.
Weathers cleans several of the class halls on campus late at night after all the students have left. She said the public restrooms are usually ok compared with other places she has worked.
“I had a sewer line explode at a place I worked,” Weathers said. “I’ve had some pretty bad bathroom experiences.”
Of course the most burning question of all concerning public restrooms is the long-standing debate over who is grosser in them: men or women.
After speaking with three female custodians and one male, the scientific answer to that question can be put to rest. Women have the worst restrooms.
“It’s the smell. It smells so much worse,” Weathers said. “It’s like the perfume and their body smells. It's just bad.”
Still, the men don’t fare much better. The custodians at Jesse Hall all said it seems to depend on the year as far as who is worse. Sometimes the men are much worse. And no matter what, bathrooms are gross disease-ridden spaces that only the most dedicated custodians can keep us safe from.
Thank your janitors.
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