Hair-raising indignation

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January 10th, 2013 · 47 comments

This type of note, I think, is the absolute WORST.

FILED UNDER: bathroom · Boston · hair · office

47 responses so far ↓

#1 f2point8

This note has been hanging here for 3 months. Do you think the note writer would have cleaned up the hair by now? Seems that he won’t.

Jan 10, 2013 at 9:04 pm rating: 90

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- #1.1 Ely North
  
  Seriously. Just pick up the hair, put it in the garbage, and go wash your hands. 45 seconds. Problem solved. Or use that sticky note to pick up the hair and put it in the garbage.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 10:55 am rating: 90
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#2 Carolyn

I was taught never to expect someone else to do something that you won’t do yourself.

Jan 10, 2013 at 9:11 pm rating: 90

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#3 Lisa

As I have a severe OPH (other people’s hair) phobia, I wouldn’t have removed it. I probably would have found another bathroom to use just to make sure I didn’t accidentally look at it. Obviously, I have issues.

But in my defense, I wouldn’t have written a note about it, either.

Jan 10, 2013 at 9:15 pm rating: 90

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- #3.1 My name is Princess!
  
  Oh! I have OPB (other people’s bathrooms) phobia. I have issues too.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 9:39 am rating: 90
- #3.2 The Elf
  
  I would have plucked one of my own and added to the pile.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 10:19 am rating: 90
- #3.3 pooham
  
  One of my neuroses is that I cannot write with a random mixture of upper and lower case letters like the notewriter can.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 11:11 am rating: 90
- #3.4 Zorin
  
  Why are people afraid of hair anyway? Especially head hair? I’ve always wondered this. Hair is inert protein, it’s not going to hurt you. Of all the “leavings” someone can leave behind, it’s probably the least gross.
  
  There’s another kind of hair that IS kinda gross, but you typically won’t find that outside a bathroom.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 1:15 pm rating: 90
- #3.5 Lam
  
  In general, finding a loose hair is just associated with being dirty. It certainly doesn’t help that hair can be home to lice, or be atrociously greasy. Regardless of the fact that lice wouldn’t be on that hair now, it still sticks out in people’s minds. And of course, finding hairs just lying around everywhere speaks to either bad hygiene or bad cleaning practices…or both.
  
  Jan 13, 2013 at 4:35 pm rating: 90
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#4 onlittlecatfeet

The LW should come to my work. We have a lady there who literally MOULTS. She leaves a trail of hair like Hansel and Gretel left breadcrumbs.
Once I plucked a long hair from my own head and placed it on the conveyor belt we were working on. When it reached her she started retching, turned off the conveyor, brought the strand of hair to me and laid it over my shoulder. Then she gave me a lecture on basic hygeine.

Jan 10, 2013 at 9:37 pm rating: 90

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#5 Julia

Oh, that’s so cute, expecting cleaning people at Any Random American Workplace to actually do some cleaning.

Jan 10, 2013 at 11:38 pm rating: 90

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#6 TRT

Just look around the bathroom. The culprit is quite clearly Dionysius. I bet he’s responsible for that sword on the floor too, and the dead body of Damocles from accounting…

Jan 11, 2013 at 4:04 am rating: 90

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- #6.1 Kwyjor
  
  This just lends itself to all kinds of fan fiction.
  
  I propose that the hair is actually that of a blessed saint, placed on the wall to seal within a terrible demon that will bring about Armageddon if anyone should dare to remove the Sacred Hair. That’s the sort of thing that goes down once everyone else has gone home, y’see.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 10:15 am rating: 90
- #6.2 The Elf
  
  That ain’t no crime.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 10:20 am rating: 90
- #6.3 Seanette
  
  I admire your creativity, Kwyjor.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 12:36 pm rating: 90
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#7 Chrissy

That hair looks kink of like a line drawing of a skinny Hitchcock…

Jan 11, 2013 at 4:33 am rating: 90

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- #7.1 Jordie
  
  I can’t unsee it now!
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 5:28 pm rating: 90
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#8 greg house md

It probably took more time and effort to write that note than it would’ve to just to pick the hair up with a paper towel and trash it. Note writer needs to happy she doesn’t work in my office. There’s a woman that leaves little balls of hair all over the place…

Jan 11, 2013 at 5:17 am rating: 90

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#9 Anny

I would remove the hair, then leave a note:
“What hair?” and hope for an answer.

Jan 11, 2013 at 8:32 am rating: 90

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#10 Brian

Here’s the thing that really annoys me, (and I’ll admit I’m assuming a lot).

Why didn’t she just ask the “cleaning people” to do it if she wouldn’t / couldn’t do it herself.

What annoys me so greatly about my fellow ‘white collar’ workers is how superior they feel to the ‘blue collar’ support staff, as if they aren’t worth acknowledging.

For example, my area was having an issue with vacuuming not being done regularly enough. People whined, left post its on their desk, etc. (Since I don’t typically eat at my desk, it wasn’t so big an issue to me.)

Finally while listening to the whine for the umpteenth time, I asked the person if they spoke with the cleaner, (who started when we were all in the office). I got a look back like I asked them to lay hands on a leper.

So I did. Found out his name was Derek, working to put himself through college without burying himself in debt, etc. He was more than happy to double our vacuuming (though it had to be a pain / extra work for him).

Dear fellow white collar workers: You are not better than blue collar workers just because you get to sit on your ass while you work. At the end of every day, I know the value the cleaner brought to my organization. I can’t say the same for half of my coworkers.

Jan 11, 2013 at 8:50 am rating: 90

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- #10.1 The Elf
  
  While I completely agree with your basic sentiment regarding white collar vs blue collar, I’ve worked in a few offices where the cleaning crew were exclusively on night shift. So we literally were never in the office at the same time. Talk to them? How? That might not be the case here, but my point is that sometimes there’s no good way to contact the cleaning crew personally.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 10:23 am rating: 90
- #10.2 Krista
  
  Amen! I use to be a janitor. The staff of the office I cleaned would leave traps for us. Like, a whole bunch of sticky notes under the trash cans. Or garbage under the trash bag in the trash can. It was demeaning.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 11:38 am rating: 90
- #10.3 Jami
  
  Not only do the janitors only come in when we’re long gone, but often English is their second lanuage or they don’t speak any at all. So we have to depend on the one coworker who happens to speak Spanish to write notes to them.
  
  On top of that they really don’t care. Even if we were there to make sure they did what they’re hired to do, they wouldn’t do it. The men’s room has often had such a dirty floor around the urinal I’ve ended up mopping it. (Takes me five minutes to do it at the most. Don’t understand why they won’t do it.) We’ve also had to often restock the toilet paper in the public bathrooms. As “revenge” the next morning we’ll find they didn’t stock/understocked the staff bathroom.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 1:51 pm rating: 90
- #10.4 SilentPsycho
  
  Guess I’m lucky. At the museum where I work, we don’t hire cleaners so we spend an hour each day cleaning before we open. Less chance of miscommunication that way, and even less chance of snarky notes from coworkers regarding the cleaning, unless they fancy cleaning the loos for a while…
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 5:21 pm rating: 90
- #10.5 juju_skittles
  
  Every office job I’ve had I’ve had to to do some cleaning at least, even if it was just emptying bins at the end of the week or vacuuming. And if I do the cleaning myself, I know it’s been done. It seems petty to bitch about something you could just clean up yourself. And if I was the cleaning staff, I’d just ignore the hair with the note.
  
  Jan 13, 2013 at 5:55 pm rating: 90
- #10.6 Jami
  
  We’re techincally not allowed to do the janitor’s work at the library. If they found out I had done their mopping for them I could face disiplinary action.
  
  But I don’t care. When the men’s room stinks so badly of old urine you can smell it through two closed doors, you bet your booty I’m going to mop!
  
  Jan 14, 2013 at 1:15 pm rating: 90
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#11 M

Ok, one comment in defense of the letter writer (who is clearly a bit a of douche). If the hair has been there for six months, that means the walls of the stall have not been cleaned in that time. This is particularly problematic in the men’s room, unfortunately.

Jan 11, 2013 at 9:04 am rating: 90

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#12 My name is Princess!

Wait! I thought she was saving that. She’s always leaving notes to “not touch her stuff” in the office kitchen. I’m just following her request.

Jan 11, 2013 at 9:30 am rating: 90

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#13 Mike

I’d write a note about the hair, but more to be kind of amazed that it’s stuck there for so long. Maybe make some bets on when it falls. A shrine, maybe. When the hair falls the entire new office religion would fall to shambles.

Jan 11, 2013 at 11:08 am rating: 90

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#14 AP

I sadly had to leave one of these notes for facilities in my building. There was a booger plastered to the bathroom wall for weeks. Facilities comes in after we’ve all left, there was no way I could have cleaned it myself without a metal scraping razor, and I couldn’t file a work request for “wall booger.”

I tried to be very, very polite though.

Jan 11, 2013 at 11:28 am rating: 90

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#15 nunavut guy

That’s where it is.

Jan 11, 2013 at 11:36 am rating: 90

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#16 Answerguy

Two things: I think that’s a cubicle divider.

If not then it would be funny to find out it’s a scribble on the bathroom divider.

Jan 11, 2013 at 3:05 pm rating: 90

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#17 Sir Puke

The note writer sounds like a real winner. In some cases it would make them a target for subtle pranksters, leaving hair on their desk, chair, coat, mug etc.
As far as dealing with cleaning crew issues, the office manager is the one most likely to be the liasion for special requests. It’s managements job to maintain an office, it should be their problem to solve.

Jan 11, 2013 at 5:13 pm rating: 90

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- #17.1 Reality
  
  … or on a coke can. ,’)
  
  (Sorry, couldn’t resist)
  
  I don’t think that PA people really worry about retribution. They’re too busy believing that they’re saving the world, one pissy note at a time.
  
  In fact, they prolly see whatever negative attention they get as proof positive that they’re right. And I’m grateful for that … otherwise, this site wouldn’t exist.
  
  Jan 11, 2013 at 8:33 pm rating: 90
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#18 mutzali

My Dad was a college professor in the 50s and 60s, who often taught future teachers. He said the best advice he could give them was, “Make friends with your janitors. They can make your job SO MUCH easier, or SO MUCH worse.”

Jan 11, 2013 at 6:44 pm rating: 90

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- #18.1 Nami
  
  @mutzali so true- When I was a orchestra teacher, I got some of my best advice about teaching from the janitors- they know the ins and outs of the school and what goes on in each classroom (since they’re usually cleaning every teacher’s classrooms and having conversations with every one of them). They truly deserve respect with their hard work and keeping the schools well maintained.
  
  Jan 12, 2013 at 11:01 am rating: 90
- #18.2 redheadwglasses
  
  My friend’s mom is a school janitory — Jr high and Sr high. She said “If you want to know what your kid is doing in school and outside of school, ask the janitor or the lunch ladies — we hear it all, because we’re invisible to the kids.”
  
  Jan 21, 2013 at 12:36 pm rating: 90
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#19 Jdaniel

I would replace the long hair with a pubic hair.

Jan 12, 2013 at 2:23 am rating: 90

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#20 Nami

I can understand the frustration if the office that the LW works in doesn’t get cleaned well, but still, it’s such a terrible note. Sadly not surprised it’s from Boston…. self righteousness seems to be rampant around here….

Jan 12, 2013 at 11:02 am rating: 90

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#21 MaryContrary

If it’s been there for six months, then that wall has not been cleaned for six months. Ew.

Jan 12, 2013 at 4:39 pm rating: 90

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#22 Akamar

Oh, that’s cute… they think a few hours is six months! I love modern day sense of time…

Jan 13, 2013 at 4:04 am rating: 90

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#23 Fritz-the-Cat

Hello?

Anyone heard about the poor cleaner who cleaned a nasty fat-splotch from a wall which turned out to be modern art and very expensive (why the heck ever…)?

I wouldn’t take that hair away either, rather carefully clean around it. Wouldn’t want to lose my job or money…

Jan 13, 2013 at 5:37 am rating: 90

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#24 Jetboy

I’ll preface this by saying I’m a guy. But what’s the big deal about a clean appearing wall (other than this particular wall) not being cleaned in six months? Who touches bathroom walls? As long as it looks clean it’s good for me.

Jan 14, 2013 at 11:03 am rating: 90

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- #24.1 Joe Blow
  
  Exactly — how often does a bathroom wall need to be cleaned? How often do people clean their bathroom walls at home?
  
  Jan 14, 2013 at 1:19 pm rating: 90
- #24.2 Missy
  
  Yep- Team note writer. Bathroom walls should be wiped down. Private ones at home that are not being used by zillions of people should be done at least once every two months. Public/work cubicles at least once a week.
  
  Jan 16, 2013 at 1:24 am rating: 90
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#25 Moon

Oh, that’s mine. I was wondering where I’d put that.

Jan 17, 2013 at 11:48 am rating: 90

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#26 jane

Every time I see this one I think about the refrigerator from Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (by Douglas Adams). That hair is a silent testament to the will and dedication of one janitor vs. the person who left the hair on the wall.

Jan 18, 2013 at 3:35 pm rating: 90

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