Monday, December 19, 2011

Do you pick it up ?

Or do you just pretend not to notice it and walk on by?

I'm talking, of course, about pieces of paper or other trash on the floor near any trash receptacle.

This is not the bathroom from
where I work, but the paper
mess looks very similar to this.
At work, the restrooms are cleaned daily (probably multiple times) ... except on the weekends (for obvious reasons considering we have much less staff here those days).  This leads to the same occurrence every single weekend: the trash cans in the bathroom begin to "overflow" with wadded up single sheets of the sandpaper paper towels used after everyone washes their hands.

Now I am glad that so many people clearly ARE washing their hands, but it never ceases to disappoint me when there are dozens of pieces of and/or full (slightly wadded-up) pieces of paper all over the floor near these trash cans.  It seems selfish or insensitive or at the very least a huge lack of awareness on the part of these paper droppers.

I'm a "picker-upper."  Before using the restroom myself, I will gather the loose shreds of paper and push them down far into the trash can (hopefully my efforts are not in vain and the can holds out until Monday morning).

I do this with pieces of paper or any kind of trash I come across anywhere in the office (my wife would tell you I do it at home too).  I feel like I should be proud of where I work and should do my part to keep it clean (especially if it is right there in front of me).  I'm not judging you to be a horrible human being if you're NOT a "picker-upper" ... but I do reserve the right to assume your own homes are probably more messy than they should be.  I also believe that this simple act is a way to remain humble (on some level at any rate).  The day I'm too good to pick up pieces of paper or trash as I walk by it is the day I need to be knocked down a peg or two on the old pride scale.

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