Are You Trying To Mess This Up?

I work as a cake decorator. Our grocery store bakery has two dish sinks: one by the bakers’ work area and one by the front where I do my thing. This front sink is the focus. One of the handles breaks, essentially making it impossible to turn off the water without using the under-sink shut-off valve, so a guy from the maintenance company is sent.

Maintenance Man: “Wow. It’s so quiet. I’m used to people chatting in places like these.”

Coworker: “Eh. We talk sometimes.”

Me: “Kinda depends on who’s on shift. If [Coworker #2] and [Coworker #3] are on shift, they talk about all kinds of things.”

We have a bit of a laugh, people continue with their work, and he starts on the sink.

At one point, I ask [Maintenance Man] about whether part of the sink design is on purpose or a flaw, thinking, “Hey, he likes socializing, and I’m actually curious.” He seems happy to explain. 

We don’t talk much after that, though part of the time he’s on the phone with his company talking about parts anyway.

Throughout this, [Maintenance Man] has a bit of a dry, not sick, cough that seems to be getting a little worse. I sympathize; I always bring a water bottle with me to work because my throat gets dry a lot.

I offer to get him a water bottle — easy enough as we are literally in a grocery store. He accepts, so I take a minute to grab one off the shelf and have a coworker ring me up for it. [Maintenance Man] ends up downing half of it in one go, so I’m thinking he needed it and feeling glad I offered.

Back to the cake decorating. It’s a fun process, but it is never a completely clean one — less so when making high quantities. Frosting spreads, tools get messy, and piping bags need washing or replacing. So, as part of my process, I have a damp and dry washcloth duo to clean as I go. As such, despite not being able to use my usual sink for cleaning, my workstation is still fairly close to how it would be on any other day, which my direct supervisor has privately commented on being cleaner than BOTH of the other cake decorators’ stations.

I don’t know if [Maintenance Man] thinks I’m not paying attention or has just forgotten that the sink is literally five feet away from my workstation, but sometime later when another coworker passes by, he says to them:

Maintenance Man: “She’s kind of messy, huh?”

I’m a little shocked. 

Me: “Well, maybe if I had a working sink…?”

Likely he was just trying to be social, but REALLY? There are topics that are much less rude. Kindness certainly isn’t transactional, but I don’t think I would have felt as hurt in the moment if I hadn’t gone out of my way first.