CLEANING LADY

As a veteran office worker I know how the cleaning staff usually works. When it comes to washrooms, if the cleaner is a female, then they wait for the men’s washroom to clear out before entering. They park the cleaning cart outside the door and then they put down that little yellow sign so dudes outside know not to go in. As for the dudes already in there, it’s handled one of two ways. First, if a dude is leaving the washroom, the cleaner might ask him if there’s still someone in there. Second, she might just politely knock on the door, open it part way, and say hello. Now, if you’re a dude still in there, it’s your job to say something or else she’ll just go in.

Now with those rules in mind, I bring you to my afternoon excursion to get a cup of coffee downstairs. I felt the need to urinate before getting a cup of joe so I detoured to the washroom first. There was no cart nor a sign outside the washroom, so I went in like normal. When I walked in, I saw one of the cleaning ladies by the sink, putting a paper towel into the garbage. Whoops, I guess she was either just starting to clean or just finishing, I couldn’t tell which.

“Whoops, are you just starting or are you just finishing up?”

Without a word, she silently waved me forward to continue my business.

“Oh ok, you’re done then. Thanks.”

With that she walked past me and out the door. Pleased that I didn’t have to go find another washroom, I continued my way towards the urinals. It was then I saw some dude was already in one of the stalls in the classic number two position. That was an odd thing to see. Why was the cleaning lady in the washroom to begin with then? Did she not care if anyone was already in there? Did you speak up but got no answer from the dude on the toilet? Maybe she did say hello and the dude was paralyzed with fear and could not say anything.

Like I said it was odd. In all my years, I’ve never seen a cleaning lady actually do any sort of cleaning while a dude was still taking a dump on the toilet. That was a first and maybe tomorrow I might even win the lottery.

ADMISSION

Yep, it’s time for another straight talk post and no it’s not about diarrhea this time, though I’m sure there’s some of that in my near future. It’s December 1! Holy! Where did the time go? I realized this evening that I have less than three months left on my contract at EA. It’s almost a year since I started!

As we are barreling towards our release date, things are really busy. Unfortunately, this is not one of those rare times where we leisurely finish the game and roll into certification without any concerns. There’s still lots to do and lots to fix. As is often said in our industry, we are “coming in hot”.

I’ve tried not to do a lot of OT. For example, I’ve yet to work a weekend but there’s a lot to do. I have worked late during the week for the last several weeks. I never work past 9pm though and seeing as how I roll in around 10am, I find that’s ok. I’m not as young as I used to be however when I was an OT machine, working 12 hour days, seven days a week. I don’t know where I got the strength to do that. Even with my limited OT, I feel tired. It’s that fatigue that can’t be chased away by a single night of good sleep.

Lots of people need or want to start the next job right away after their contract ends. I’ve never really been like that and it looks like that probably won’t happen after this one. I won’t be looking for the next gig until I’m good and ready. It looks like March 2016 will be a great month for sleeping. I’m looking forward to it!