Unfiltered Story #323882

I work at a government office in Taiwan that serves the public, where there’s a particular job title and responsibility that is quite similar with many overlaps to what in English would call a “custodian” or “janitor”. For this story I will refer to this collegue as a “Custodian”.

Now, this particular Custodian has a personal habit that has become memetic between all of us in the same department: his eyes will be glued onto his phone with every waking opportunity and usually is seen off of it only when his visual attention is required elsewhere: such as (un)loading boxes, talking to higher-ups/external agents, or the battery died and is recharging. He even has the ability to navigate the mazey interior of the office of collegues, furniture, and equipment without fail or accidents (including emptying all the rubbish bins into a big collection bag without dropping anything onto the floor, all the whole his eyes never once left the attention of his phone!). One event even had him being so fixated on his phole while in the toilets that he delayed the opening of the office to the public by two minutes – something not lost on the public waiting (im)patiently outside.

One day, we had a new replacement in the cleaning team (externally contracted, and supervised directly by the Custodian), the Custodian was going to give a tour of the office area and a rundown of her responsibilities, but she arrived earlier and spent her time staring at her phone.

After the Custodian arrived and started giving the talk to the new cleaner, she could be seen struggling to put her phone away – struggling to find the pocket in her apron. The Custodian got rather impatient with her…

Custodian: OI, hurry up! No one looks at their phone while working here!

Since it’s still early so only a few of us were present to witness this exchange; but those who were there eventually lost it as soon as they were out of sight and earshot. Similar reactions were extracted from collegues (and management!) when we relayed the event to them.