Same Street. Different Sector

Big Accounting Inc., the firm I left 10 weeks ago was literally and figuratively on Bay Street, but it was ever so close to King St. Head down King in an fashion easterly in direction (to sound like a cop's notebook) -- btw, does easterly mean toward the east or out of the east. I'm too lazy to look it up and I always forget anyway. Fucking sailors -- anyway, move east along King until the addresses carry "East" and you quickly arrive at the college where I now work.

I don't miss my previous job one little bit, and the best part, the gossip, I still get from a couple of very good pals I have who still work there (although one just got her freedom today, actually, and is moving off to the CBC), but there remain stark differences which work to remind me of my recent career path and of the quite different work worlds -- the one I found refuge from and the one that provided that refuge.

I was thinking of that today when I found myself cleaning the board room table with paper towel and watered down window cleaner (both in short supply always). The table was gross, even lumpy with detrius, as most in my department eat at it at lunch and if we don't clean it ourselves, well... There are cleaning staff, of course, but so short in numbers that our office garbage cans are changed only weekly. We tend to go out into the hallways in search of trash cans to dispose of food waste. I forgot today and tossed an apple core into the boardroom garbage can -- tall and lined with a green garbage bag to hold a week's worth of trash, I guess -- and up went a cacophony of complaints (we tend to all eat at the same time; a crowd of brown baggers -- which is a particular enjoyment of working at the place, actually, as the lunch gatherings are pits of wit and anecdotes).


Then there are the bathrooms. Apparently there are staff washrooms (requiring a key) but I haven't bothered to look for the men's as stories of the women's leads me to believe the public washroom I use on our floor is as clean as those reserved for the exclusive use of those employed by the college. Women I work with tell tales of sitting on the toilet and watching as "drain flies" (what a fabulous description) rise up through the grate covering the floor drains... As recently as when I worked at Big Accounting Inc. there were executive washrooms. Shortly after the democratization of urinals and toilets there, the group I worked for moved to the executive floor and I stood pissing at a urinal with the chair and CEO his very self. I commented, waiting, of course, until we were both at the sink washing, something about the awkwardness or reward (I don't remember now) of having to pee next to the chairman. That particular chairman was not amused. He's also the same guy (who was actually a nice person, just a tight ass executive) who had multiple signs and posters (on each of the firm's high-rise floors) removed (and I know as I was one of those who went floor to floor looking for any straggling posters) 'cause the image used was a drawn graphic of boxer shorts (the message was about not getting caught with your pants down on some issue) and he though the way the fly was drawn looked like a cock, although I'm sure he only suggested his concern, didn't name it.

Then there's the elevator differences. Down at Bay and King they were marvels of efficiency, with fine decor and avoid-your-fellow-riders tv screens with insulting ads and news briefs ripe with typos and grammatical errors. Over at King and Jarvis, well, I'm on the fifth floor but most often take the stairs -- it's faster and allows one to avoid raising questions in one's head about delicate topics such as cable wear and fray, and power supply that only engineers should have to ponder while riding a lift...

No competition though, public sector drain flies win hands (er, wings?) down over the profit mongers any day.