Boss Tells Janitor What Bathrooms He Can And Cannot Use While On The Job
Micromanaging and dehumanizing all at the same time? Give this boss some kind of award.
AndreyPopov | Getty Images | Canva Pro Each day, it seems like another boss comes up with new and innovative ways to be the worst leader possible. Some micromanage, others treat workers like underlings, and some outright dehumanize their employees.
But one man on Reddit has a boss who somehow managed to combine all three of these into one tidy package, which has other workers calling for him to take revenge and him looking for a new job.
A janitor's boss told him he could only use certain bathrooms at work.
Right off the bat, we're off to a really bad start! The 35-year-old janitor wrote in a Reddit post that he works in a large medical facility. His job is, of course, to tend to the bathrooms, among other things, which is no small task in a building this size. "I clean maybe 20, 25 bathrooms a day," he wrote.
Certainly not glamorous work, but important work nonetheless. They keep a facility running, even though they're often paid as if they don't matter at all.
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As if that's not insulting enough, this particular janitor's boss decided to add insult to injury by micromanaging him in a way that was both snobbish and totally dehumanizing.
His boss made a rule that he could only use the dirtiest, most frequently used bathroom.
On the third floor of the building he works on is a large laboratory that, unlike the rest of the building, runs 24/7. A steady stream of people pick up and drop off specimens from the laboratory, so it's a nonstop busy part of the building.
"There are two bathrooms next to the elevator right by the main door that get used, maybe as much as a gas station bathroom," the janitor wrote.
"They're always a mess," he added, likely because he'd have to be posted in those bathrooms at all times to keep up with them instead of tending to the 24 others he's also responsible for.
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So imagine how he felt when his boss came up to him one day demanding to know which bathrooms he uses for his own needs. "I was caught off guard and literally speechless," he said. It's a weird and intrusive question to ask anyone.
But it got worse from there. "She then told me to use the bathrooms by the elevators from now on because they're always getting dirty anyway," he said. "I'm a 35-year-old who just got told where he can and can't [expletive] in the bathrooms that I clean."
People were shocked by his boss's attitude, and the janitor said he would be looking for a new job.
It's hard to fully unpack all the layers of offensive weirdness in this interaction.
First, there's the implication that a guy who cleans bathrooms for a living doesn't deserve to have access to a clean restroom — which is vile on a number of levels. The sneering disdain for him and his work may not have been overtly stated, but you can certainly sniff them in the subtext.
Then there's the implied punishment involved. Did his boss make this rule in order to scold him for not being able to keep the busiest washrooms in the building as clean as the other 24 he's responsible for?
And maybe most important of all — who cares what bathroom anyone uses?! Don't you have more important things to tend to?
People on Reddit were staggered by his boss's attitude and urged him to get revenge by making her desk his personal bathroom which, while hilarious, would likely land him in jail. Instead, he plans to look for another job.
He likes being a janitor because the solitude helps him manage his mental illness, but he's being paid a rate that is low for his area and being micromanaged and dehumanized on top of it. Nobody deserves that.
And perhaps if he quits, his boss will realize janitors are more than just the peons, so to speak, who do the icky work they would never deign to — unless they're forced to when their janitors quit of course.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.