Clean sweep

No, not that one. Although that may not be a bad idea.

Our annual office cleaning day is a bit more laid back, and doesn't accomplish quite as much. In theory, we are doing a thorough cleaning of all areas of the office. In practice, I see a lot of people who claim to be "too busy" to spend an hour or two wiping down cabinets or wielding a vacuum. It's odd, too; the last time we did this, everyone pitched in and the place was a noisy beehive...this time, the silence is deafening.

Well, I've done my part - cleaned the "equipment room" - a fifteen by twenty five pit of miscellaneous payroll printers, collators, scanning equipment and typewriters. Three floor to almost ceiling cabinets stuffed with (current) old records waiting their turn to be rotated to basement storage, and finally, to the shredder. Five decent rolling chairs (why?), the monster shredder, a huge recycle bin and a bookcase containing extraneous keyboards, outdated software disks, never-used reference manuals and our good sized fiction lending library. Everything dusted, wiped down and returned to place much neater than it was in the first place.

And I never use that room myself.

After the equipment room, I did some cleaning in my own office. The nice new veneered particleboard furniture I've had since October shows every single fingerprint. The only thing that works well to remove and clean it is plain hot water and elbow grease.

The good news is that we were able to dress down for the day, and the department is paying for lunch. The bad news is that my sinuses turned to concrete five minutes after we began to clean. That is, they are concrete-like when my nose is not running in a distinctly faucet-like manner. Interesting, how both cases can be true at the same time.

Lunchtime is fast approaching, and I've certainly worked up an appetite. But based on some of the things I've seen (or more accurately not seen) this morning, I'm beginning to think we should take Paul's advice to the Thessolonian church to heart:

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.

2 Thessalonians 3:10

Emphasis mine.