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Hi! I've been really busy at work, which maybe you could tell because I haven't posted anything for about two months. And it's been longer than that since I had a good rant. But I'm sort of back, now. And I'm going straight into the toilet.
Literally.
At work, I'm on the second floor of five (and a ground floor, so technically, it's the third floor of six) with all the other software developer-types, our managers, QA, their managers, project developers and managers (and their management), and who knows what else. There are a lot of us packed like sardines into 5' x 8' cubes.
And in the bathroom, when we wave our hands in front of the towel dispenser to get a towel, it gives four inches of towel and then makes you wait a full ten seconds or so before you can get another four inches of towel. This is a recent change that has not gone unnoticed.
It's very annoying, because now, guys stand there and drip (their hands, people; get your minds out of the gutter) while waiting for the tiny paper towel, which does nothing but smear the water around because it's too small to dry anything larger than a field mouse (again, hands, people).
I was recently on the fifth floor. Up in the "penthouse" where the guys with seven-digit salaries dwell. There are probably 1/6 as many of them as there are of us on the second floor. And their towel dispenser has no delay. And it gives a glorious eight full inches. Of towel. (Mind, gutter, out of.)
I was in the bathroom on the second floor washing my hands and there were three of us in there waiting to get towels, dripping water onto the floor and bitching about the inadequate towel dispensage.
One of the guys suggested with a wry laugh that it must have been one of the more successful outcomes of our highly vaunted Six Sigma project. Surely, we were using too many paper towels, so the obvious solution to cut costs would be to limit our per-tear towel use and our per-minute consumption rate of said towels by making it so inconvenient that we would merely resort to wiping our hands on our pants and leaving in disgust.
Instead, what it has done is caused the floor to be dangerously slick because, when we can't get towels, some people sling the water off onto the floor, walls, or counters around the sink. And some guys just don't wash their hands at all, which increases the likelihood of horrible things being on every surface.
And instead of getting a single eight-inch towel, we're now having to get three four-inch towels (do the math). And it takes longer to get them.
We spend longer away from our desks. There is probably an increased rate of no hand-washing. As a result of that, there is an increase in towel usage because now people have to get a towel to open the door of the bathroom before they leave. Water is everywhere, which increases how often the janitorial service has to clean up. And employees are grousing about it instead of just washing our hands and quickly vacating the bathroom.
Great jobs, management. Truly.
And yeah, the manager-type who suggested the Six Sigma tie-in was joking . . . but the more I think about it, the less funny it is, because I'll bet you someone somewhere did have a meeting about it.
My solution? I'll just take the elevator up to the fifth floor and use their bathroom. Then I can waste energy as well as towels.
Progress!
Literally.
At work, I'm on the second floor of five (and a ground floor, so technically, it's the third floor of six) with all the other software developer-types, our managers, QA, their managers, project developers and managers (and their management), and who knows what else. There are a lot of us packed like sardines into 5' x 8' cubes.
And in the bathroom, when we wave our hands in front of the towel dispenser to get a towel, it gives four inches of towel and then makes you wait a full ten seconds or so before you can get another four inches of towel. This is a recent change that has not gone unnoticed.
It's very annoying, because now, guys stand there and drip (their hands, people; get your minds out of the gutter) while waiting for the tiny paper towel, which does nothing but smear the water around because it's too small to dry anything larger than a field mouse (again, hands, people).
I was recently on the fifth floor. Up in the "penthouse" where the guys with seven-digit salaries dwell. There are probably 1/6 as many of them as there are of us on the second floor. And their towel dispenser has no delay. And it gives a glorious eight full inches. Of towel. (Mind, gutter, out of.)
I was in the bathroom on the second floor washing my hands and there were three of us in there waiting to get towels, dripping water onto the floor and bitching about the inadequate towel dispensage.
One of the guys suggested with a wry laugh that it must have been one of the more successful outcomes of our highly vaunted Six Sigma project. Surely, we were using too many paper towels, so the obvious solution to cut costs would be to limit our per-tear towel use and our per-minute consumption rate of said towels by making it so inconvenient that we would merely resort to wiping our hands on our pants and leaving in disgust.
Instead, what it has done is caused the floor to be dangerously slick because, when we can't get towels, some people sling the water off onto the floor, walls, or counters around the sink. And some guys just don't wash their hands at all, which increases the likelihood of horrible things being on every surface.
And instead of getting a single eight-inch towel, we're now having to get three four-inch towels (do the math). And it takes longer to get them.
We spend longer away from our desks. There is probably an increased rate of no hand-washing. As a result of that, there is an increase in towel usage because now people have to get a towel to open the door of the bathroom before they leave. Water is everywhere, which increases how often the janitorial service has to clean up. And employees are grousing about it instead of just washing our hands and quickly vacating the bathroom.
Great jobs, management. Truly.
And yeah, the manager-type who suggested the Six Sigma tie-in was joking . . . but the more I think about it, the less funny it is, because I'll bet you someone somewhere did have a meeting about it.
My solution? I'll just take the elevator up to the fifth floor and use their bathroom. Then I can waste energy as well as towels.
Progress!
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