Julia says:
I had a little furnace mishap at church on Sunday. What's something you've done for your work that wasn't exactly in the job description?
Where I work, and have been working since 1996, the person who has been around longest seems to become sort of the "room mother" for the facility. When I arrived that was J. and now it is P.
And seeing how over-stretched P. was, particularly as we moved into a newly renovated building and she coordinated everything from the renovation to the move to the punch list to the whining (sorry, but there has been whining...we have humans here) I've been trying to help. I'm maybe the "apprentice room mother."
A few weeks ago P. took a rare and well-deserved vacation, and the person whose office is next to hers exclaimed to me, "Oh my gosh! When P. goes away, it's like the Apocalypse around here!" It can be very stressful to come to your good solid resource, the one who is always there and knows it all, and find that they are NOT there.
So: This newly, gorgeously renovated building is all kinds of environmentally sound. From the lighting to the HVAC, we are cutting edge. And, paper towels are verboten (as in, they are not provided by Facilities). So if you want to dry your hands or a dish in the kitchen, you must use the communal dishcloths (or cart your own from your office).
And if you want to dry your hands in the restrooms, this is your choice:
Yes, it's one of those fancy hand dryers that Sheldon Cooper gets so upset about:
Cue much whining...including, I'll admit, from ME at first. But I've gotten used to it.
You can see there's a little trough that collects the water the machine blows off of hands. Well, periodically the reservoir fills up, and then the machine starts BEEPING. Once I learned that all you have to do to stop that is get down on the floor with a cup and drain the reservoir, I figured all was well. I like being self-sufficient in small things.
So imagine my surprise, recently, when a colleague said to me, "Hey, I guess I really should tell P. this, but that dryer is beeping."
I said, "Oh, you don't have to tell P.! It's easy to fix it, you just drain the reservoir. Come let me show you how."
"Um...no, thanks."
What!? She didn't want to get down on the bathroom floor with me? I guess it's not in my job description, but when I weigh listening to the beeping until Facilities comes, and then THAT guy has to close the bathroom and get down on the floor...Geez.
