99 Bottles of Beer on the Job
99 Bottles of Beer on the Job
Our crew was working the midnight shift. 
THE MISSION: sanitize and spot clean the carpeting in a commercial office building.
THE SPACE: a tight maze-like configuation of small workstations grouped together, oftentimes dubbed a Cubicle Farm.
As we descended on our one-acre cube farm, a song from back in the day of school bus field trips came to mind. Whether sparked by the full-on shot of those never-ending niches or maybe just the thought of an ice-cold one after work, that famous count-down tune about beer started to play in my head. Of course I adapted the words to fit the situation...
99 Cubies of Carpet of Clean, 99 Cubies to Clean ,
TAKE ONE DOWN! PASS IT AROUND!
98 Cubies of Carpet to Clean...
Yeah, I know the words don't make complete sense (and of course my crew let me know that immediately when I tried unsuccessfully to get them to join me in song) but the singing actually helped to make the job seem less daunting, as I did have that goal to reach ZERO cubies to clean after all.
As we worked on through the night cleaning those little spaces, it was obvious each cubie resident had a style of their own - some dribbled the coffee, others spilled the whole cup; some left crumbs on the carpet, others the whole cookie. (Hey, in this ecomony when you have 100s of cubicle spaces with human inhabitants you happily deal with any mess, right!)
So while their "styles" varied, practically every one of them had something in common: a photo of a kid, a spouse, a pet - something meaningful they loved. There were photo layouts rivaling the art in a museum, while others had placed just one small picture by a keyboard.
Instantly, I began to feel differently about the task we were there to handle. Seeing all those images brought me back to our company’s ideals of service in the bigger "picture" (no pun intended). We were cleaning, yes, but also making the workplace healthier and brighter for those owners of the photos - the actual people who loved those kids, spouses, and pets lovingly on display.
In life, haven't we all been called on to complete a job or task that might seem overwhelming or one that we might wish to somehow pass on to someone else? But before passing on it, why not break it down into manageable sections and then have a little celebration as you complete each section. Why not be inclined to look for what your connection is to the bigger picture and when the job is finally complete the sense of accomplishment you will feel only helps to make that next job go much easier.
And who knows, you might have a little fun along the way.
Reader Comments (5)
Wow. I never thought that song could help me when I was carpet cleaning in Calgary . It just made time fly as I got one thing done after another in my house. Maybe i could apply it to my job, too. Thank you!
To complete a task we can break it into little intervals.We should reward ourselves after completing our task which will create motivation. Cleaning service Sydney
No doubt office cleaning is one of the hardest job specially carpet cleaning of the office with 99 cabins. There were different types of messes that you have to deals with that you nicely describe in this writing.
One of the biggest challenge while cleaning re carpets. One of the main reasons for this that carpets easily trap the dust particles and over the time if not properly cared feds in color. Therefore it requires for special treatment. However the cleaning services today do provide the option for carpets and its important that we take proper care of these carpets.
I enjoyed reading that post a lot. It was not only helpful, but interesting and a lot of fun. There are rarely such post. Kudos for that!