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A case of life imitating fashion

Posted Feb 12, 2010

The office is the backdrop to many power struggles; while I am all for a healthy dose of competitiveness, the one battle I wasn't prepared to fight was with a team of impossibly chic cleaners.

There are many people I would consider myself intimidated by in the office; amongst them would be the cleaning personel: in head-to-toe black (fashion really doesn't kid with these things), they are this silent presence who just like Batman work at night... But then I love my job so much that I do too and so I am one of the few who actually gets to meet, greet and receive disapproving looks from them.

On a typical day, the clock hits 6pm and most colleagues progressively make their way out while I tap away (more or less) happily; silence ensues and then the sound.The unmistakable sound that the time has arrived for the office to re.assume its pristinely chic state. I generally get nervous but try to ignore it and overdo do it on the smiling as a compensation; I then launch into awkward chatting mode and get very little but a couple of nods back.

I pondered the matter for endless hours and then I caught it: the look! All at once I understood my inadequate Italian and poor social skills had nothing to do with it... See, the one detail I'd conveniently forgotten to mention is the fact we are personally responsible for the cleaning of the infamous white desks; only I generally forget that bit as well... On a good day it's a pleasant shade of dove grey but on a not so good one... well let's say it would be reason enough for a team of cleaners to look upon me as literal scum.

After it all fell into place I decided to take action: skipped lunch and had a household shopping spree, wipes and brooms and all sorts of bottles and sprays... My keenness was mostly met by sarcasm on the office floor but then the knowledge that it would soon be a floor you could eat off comforted me in my journey. And so these days, on a typical late afternoon, I am most likely found with a broom in had - albeit comfortably sat, with a bottle in hand (hydration through exercising is essential); I have never felt like more of an Italian screen goddess in my entire life!

 

 

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