A Conscientious Employee

I have been dating one guy, Chris, for about six weeks. He is a friendly, kind person and I really like him. Of course if I didn't like him, I guess I would not date him. Anyway, Chris works delivering and putting floor mats down in building entranceways and corridors. He replaces dirty floor mats with clean ones. He doesn’t make a lot of money, and it is not exactly clean work, but Chris doesn’t complain about it.

I work at a car dealership in Chicago. I would guess that there are perhaps sixty other employees working there including one custodian. The custodian is an older, quiet, black man. He has worked for the dealership longer than I have, so he has been there for at least three years. When we pass during the day I usually say hello to him; usually, but not always. Sometimes he is absorbed doing something and he will not notice every person who happens to walk by.

Yesterday I watched him as he mopped the tile floor running down this one hallway. I didn’t just glance at him working; I paused what I was doing so I could witness this man at his work. At one point he stopped the sweeping motion of his mopping so he could concentrate on this one part of the floor. Perhaps there was a stubborn stain there or something sticking to the floor. Whatever it was, he gave it an extra thirty seconds worth of labor before once again mopping back and forth down the hallway.

I walk down that hallway perhaps two dozen times a day and I never pay any attention to the floor. Like almost everyone else, if there is a smudge on a piece of tile, it doesn’t matter and it goes unnoticed. But to that custodian, a smudge matters. It matters enough that he would spend a few extra seconds getting rid of it. That custodian was a conscientious employee and as I watched him work, I could not help but admire him.

When the custodian had finished mopping the hallway, I walked down to him and asked him his name. His name is Calvin. I should have asked him that question a long time ago.