Workplace Etiquette - Dropping the Bomb, or: Leave It On!

[Innoma]

I don't know about the owners and employess at your workplace, but at mine, they are none too fastidious about conserving electricity - I've come in to work alone on many a weekend to find the air conditioner or heater running full on, or the huge, industrial warehouse heater blasting away. Now, I'm a relatively nice (albeit sneakily greedy) kinda person, so when I leave at night (usually being among the last to leave, making me somewhat of a workaholic to boot), I shut down all the errant lamps, computers printers, and air conditioners when I go. After all, if I inadvertantly save them a bundle on utilities, maybe they'll end up swimming in enough cash that I'll get a raise somewhere down the pike (hence my 'sneakily greedy' observation earlier for those of you who might still be entertaining the misguided idea that I am indeed truly a detail-oriented, philanthropic individual).

Yet, while my co-workers and bosses might not care about leaving lamps on or the hot water running for hours on end, there is one place where they consistently and obessively make sure the light switch is turned off at all times - the bathroom. Perhaps you think its no big deal, but our bathroom has one of those nice, reverse-flow ceiling fans that has some very obviously useful properties, and when that fan is off, the room becomes rather uninhabitable. Needless to say, nothing is worse than dashing off to the facilities only to find its recently been fumigated, the doors tightly sealed, the light (and fan) off, and a horde of cockroaches have tumbled out of the baseboards, feet in the air, antennas twitching feebly.

For an old, drafty, leaky (no pun intended) building, our bathroom is shockingly air-tight, and without benefit of that aforementioned ceiling fan, these signature, malodorous scents can last hours on end, undiminished by normally occurring air pressure and inevitably fatal to all forms of insect life, when a scant five minutes of ceiling fan activity would scrub the room free of all harmful particulate matter.

I don't know about you, but common courtesy would suggest leaving the ceiling fan going a few minutes out of sympathy for other forms of life. After all, I really don't want my co-workers to be that familiar with me, and it should also be observed that there are times when saving energy can turn out to be counter-productive and even downright hazardous.

So today, I implore you all, please leave it on, or at least open, and make the world a better place for us all, both sentient and multi-legged.

Thank you.

[Darth_Kitten]

1. As a fellow light switcher offer, I SALUTE you!!

People just don't realize how costly utilty costs can become.

[Texasgal]

2. malodorous scents

:rofl:

That's GREAT!!!!

[Darth_Kitten]

3. Hey, those scents can knock the wind out of you!

Many times I have had to flee a washroom that reeked....it wasn't purdy. ;)

[Innoma]

4. Another Tip from the Malodorous Adventurer...

While leaving it on (or open) can be the single most thoughtful gesture you can make to your fellow co-worker, one might also ponder the benefits of trying not to leave forensic evidence at the scene of the crime.

[davsand]

5. Would a can of Glade be a cost effective alternative?

I'll grant you it is not completely eco-friendly, but its chemical shortcomings might be offset by the savings in electricity.

:shrug:

Laura