“I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.”
― Billy Joel
The life of a Janitor is quite a stellar event for everyone on station in my opinion. These are people who appear to be permanently happy, fun, and extremely contagious.
Janos come in every shape, size, and personality. We have those solemn ones who greet you with a smile and a head nod but leave the initiation of conversation up to your discretion.
There are those found singing away the workday while working to sterilize the many doorknobs around station.
There are some which you don't even notice because they are quick on their feet and direct in what they are cleaning and have a list of other items on the docket leaving them no time to "dilly-dally."
And then there are those who have a hearty laugh that is heard through the halls. These are usually found dancing up the halls with mops and brooms or playing pranks on clueless victims.
A Day of the Fabled Jano:
Our Janos begin our day just like the vast majority of the workers at McMurdo Station, slow, quiet, and at 7:30am. At 7:25am you can usually point them out because they'll be the ones grabbing a cup of coffee with a pastry in their mouth making their way to the second floor to attend "Morning Meeting." Going to Morning Meeting is a great way to start the day if you ask me. You get to see friendly faces and discuss any odd events that may have happened in the last while since your last morning meeting such as what happened at the social gathering the previous night. My favorite days are when you're sitting next to someone who was up entirely too late the night before when someone walks in with a "Shit-Eating Grin." (As it's been known as). The person, upon entering, immediately looks at the person of concern and, with a slight hesitation for dramatic effect, asks something like, "How ya feeling today?" or "How much of last night do you remember?" or "You guys won't believe what this guy/girl did in the Galley!" This always starts the morning with a good, much needed laugh.Once all of the possibly embarrassing stories are out of the way the actual stories begin. The Lead Janos are amazing people. They are constantly thinking of fun things to do for the plebeians who have to follow their orders. One thing they do for morning meeting is find fun little books that are silly in every way. For example, "People Who Deserve It" by Casey Rand. A book about crappy people in society who giggle on their cell phones while you're trying to tell them a funny story or eat with their mouths open, allowing you to smell the process of their digestion.
Another book is, "I wish Daddy didn't drink so much"by Judith Vigna. Where a young girl spends Christmas hoping her father didn't do such silly things like dressing up like Santa and spilling beer on her bedroom floor.
Once the fun is over we take a moment or two to actually discuss topics involved with work such as safety concerns, cleaning techniques, and actual work schedule for the day. It may seem like this is a good way to waste the first 1/2 hour of work everyday but it is crucial for morale and general happiness. Without starting the day out with laughter the entirety of station would suffer greatly.
So at this point we go to the Galley one more time to get our hydration on and refill our water bottles. Afterwards, we break off on our own to handle our various tasks. At the beginning of the day we all have our dormitories to clean. This is a large task and definitely takes a lot of the day. When we are done here it is usually time for lunch after our appropriate stretch break and break break. Once we are back on duty it is time to clean Highway 1. This is the busiest part of station because it leads to the Galley and on the way has various offices for Human Resources, Housing, and Recreation along with our small store. So naturally this place is going to get filthy with people tracking in mud and snow along with spilling coffee and food bits all over the floor. This is a fun event because it's the only part of the day where you are teamed up with other Janos. The four of you tag-team clean the two bathrooms, two hand sinks, and sweep and mop the floor with the assistance of the Zamboni.
The Zamboni:
This pleasant little vehicle makes a Janos life much easier but also a little more exciting. It looks like a regular zamboni got pregnant and aborted the baby a bit on the late side resulting in a miniature blue thing that with a handle that is too low for most people to operate and barely has the capacity to suck the dirt off the ground without spreading more of it around. But as they say, "It's the little victories." Yes it is small and does not do it's job well but damnit, it's a change up from a push broom! Plus, you can "ghost ride the whip" which means you let it gently pull itself forward while dancing around it to the music that you can only hear because you're wearing headphones.
After another stretch break and one more break break we come to the home stretch of the work day where we just start tackling work centers around station. At this time the other workers get the pleasure of running into random Janos around station. We walk into where they work and close down their bathrooms for cleaning. A lot of people get pissy about this but whatever, if it doesn't get cleaned now then it never will so dance around for a little and let us do our thing.
So now that you understand what we do work-wise, let's discuss the important part of things. Recreation!
