The Neverending Polish

There was an anecdote I remember which someone said that the painters of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco will never be out of work because by the time they finish painting it from one end to the other, it is time to do it over again. I don’t remember who said it, or when, or if it’s even true.

                Something similar seems to be happening in the building I work in as far as polishing the floors are concerned. One of the housekeeper’s duties appears to be the never ending polishing of the floors. When he finishes stripping the old wax, reapplying new wax, blow drying the floor with a powerful fan which could possibly launch a small plane, then polishing the surface, it is time to move to another segment of the building. By the way, he has to apply five coats of wax and blow dry between coats. In recent months, I’ve noticed that this appeared to be an unending routine not unlike the Golden Gate Bridge painters would do. Maybe this housekeeper has the same job security as long as he survives the nasty fumes emitting from the wax and doesn’t do him in. Best of luck to him.

                In addition, when they have to polish in patient care areas, they block off areas of the unit where staff and patients are not allowed to pass through for hours. There is a consequence to this because it creates a problem with patients going to and from their rooms and it pisses them off that they couldn’t move about. It also pisses the staff off because it compromises the safety of the patients because we can’t check on them as frequently as needed. Nobody has died yet while this happened but a few years ago, a patient was able to strip the glue from her window and escape. We didn’t find out until about three hours later when the polishers finished their work and the patient was long gone. The housekeepers did a good job waxing and polishing, the patient did a good job escaping, but the staff was unable to do a good job due to the waxing.

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