Which Trashcan?

As I have whined about many times, I often have GCVs to deal with (ginormous client visits). The thing I really hate about them is cleaning up after them. I feel like that should be Janitorial's job.

And frankly, I'd be happy to pay for it with food. Allow me to explain.

You know the food I'm talking about. It's the client visit leftovers…the food that I used to be rabid about making sure that Janitorial and Security DID NOT get.

Mein Gott, I used to have a flippin fit if janitorial or security got the food from a client visit. All that delicious food down THEIR gullets? Oh, I don't think so. Don't they know how hard I worked to prep that stupid visit? Don't they know how hard I worked to order that food and get out of bed early and arrive here early? And leave late? That food is my flippin REWARD! How dare they?

One time I actually was b*llsy enough to go in search of the food that disappeared. I made a big stink about it and almost actually removed it from the clutches of the hapless network people whom it had gone to serve. If it weren't for that department's admin's disapproving look and fiery laserbeam stares boring holes in my back, I'd have made an even more gigantic a*s out of myself than I actually ended up being.

And then there was the time that one of the VPs in a client visit of mine offered the leftovers to his assistant. Leftovers that he hadn't paid for!! Neither had I, but so what?! Holy Lord, I actually spread venom about it. I stomped upstairs looking for MY sandwiches! These days, I can't imagine acting like that on my worst day. I was so venomous, in fact, that that admin actually felt she needed to email me to let me know that if I had a beef with her, to take it up with her next time. Not one of my proudest work moments.

I felt like, "Oh my God, free food?! Well, I can't let an opportunity like that pass me by! Holy Jesus! That'd be a f*ckin sacrilege!" So I would time my clean up activities perfectly, run downstairs, and collect the goodies. Cookies, cut fruit, beautiful, glorious sandwiches, delicious, delicate pastry, you name it. Oh God, can't let such a golden opportunity pass me by for the experience of *gasp* free food!!!! Panera pastries are the experience of a lifetime, for God's sake. It's a little org*sm, a dream come true, wrapped in cheese, powdered sugar, lard, and flour.

But since joining OA, my opinions are just a wee bit different. And they can all be summed up in one little phrase: I don't care.

I don't care about the extra food, unless I'm starving. I don't frame my lunches around what time a lunch is being served, cleaned up, or what time a meeting's being concluded or refreshed. What food there is in the breakroom doesn't much concern me, because I now eat enough at breakfast and lunch so that I don't get hungry in mid morning or mid afternoon.

I also fear being alone in the kitchen with the leftovers.

So when I say I'm happy to pay janitorial and security with food, that's what I mean. I'm perfectly happy to call them and tell em, "Hey, before I clean up this conference room, go get anything you want, and just call me when you're done." And man, they are grateful. Or I'm perfectly happy to just let all that stuff sit there and let janitorial just take it all as a little tip for their troubles. In fact, that's generally what I do if it's the end of the day and there's no reason to hurriedly clean up all that stuff.

Supervisor and Twiggy are not generally perfectly happy to let janitorial have whatever they want. They typically will volunteer to clean up my client visits, and I think it's probably because they do want all that food to come up here. These two ladies do not appear to be COEs. They just seem to hate waste. I hate waste too, but I'm not going to cart a few bags of chips and two cookies up here if that's all that's left - unless it's an obscene amount of food, I'm throwing it in the trash, and I've been pretty vocal about that. It's not like there's some executive order or rule that leftovers must come upstairs; that is a perk.

Frankly, I'm doing everyone up here a favor. With Americans getting fatter and fatter, we shouldn't be acting like if we throw any food away, the world's going to end. Granted, we shouldn't be wasteful, but we should remember that there are many kinds of waste. And eating food that we don't need as an alternative to throwing it in the trash is in fact, saving nothing.

As one OA'er told me, "Which trashcan are you going to use? Yourself or that other one?"

Or the janitorial staff? :o)