No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk. SPOILED Milk, On The Other Hand…

I’m a security guard. A coworker broke the mini-fridge in our guard shack. I don’t even know how; I just know it wasn’t working anymore after he said he tried to “de-ice” it. Then, he started leaving cardboard gallons of milk in random places that seemed like they might be colder than the rest of the room. Almost two weeks ago, he brought in a gallon of milk and a small bottle of chocolate milk and stashed them in the first aid kit because it was made of metal, and obviously, metal means cold like a fridge, right?

Then, [Coworker] moved to work at a different site.

Fast forward to today. I come in, and the first aid kit is leaking and the room is smelly. No one knew what was in there since we rarely go into it. I work the grave shift, so I’m alone the whole time retching, gagging, and crying. I check the first aid kit only to find the milk inside, and I immediately know who left it there, so I text that person.

Me: “Hey, [Coworker], did you leave a gallon of milk and a bottle of chocolate milk in the first aid kit?”

Coworker: “Yeah, that needs to be tossed.”

Me: “Yes, it does.”

Coworker: “Okay, well, go ahead and toss it. I’ll come by to get my stuff another time.”

Me: “Hmm, no. Can you come clean up your rotting milk, please?”

I’d like to add that it’s 10:00 pm, and this person is up late normally, so I didn’t wake him.

Coworker: “No, I don’t work there anymore, so you’re going to need to clean it.”

After that text conversation, I call my manager, and she is confused, rightfully so.

Manager: “Call [Supervisor] and have him come help you.”

So, I call [Supervisor].

Me: “Hey, [Supervisor], [Coworker] left a gallon of milk to rot in the first aid kit, and now the shack smells putrid, and it’s leaking. [Manager] told me to call you about it.”

[Supervisor] was also confused by what I said, but he said he’d be there within the hour to take care of the situation.

After that phone call, I went to the client building where I work and got some protective masks and medical gloves so we could clean this up. The client supervisor asked me why I needed them, and when I told him, he had me repeat what I’d said because he couldn’t believe it.

About an hour passed. I was wearing my mask when [Supervisor] arrived and started cleaning up the mess. He wouldn’t even let me help him because it was a health hazard.

I didn’t know what was going to happen to [Coworker] because, technically, he still worked for the company, just at a different site, but at the very least, he needed to be taught about health and safety.

But as the way dumb crap happens with the company I work for, it was shrugged off. The client site is going to shampoo the carpet. The guy is still employed by the company; as a matter of fact, because he’s a flex employee, he’s still covering our site when someone calls out.

Luckily for me, I had a wax warmer and some wax cubes I could bring in to kill the smell. I made sure all the other guards were okay with the smell and plugged the thing in. Now, the shack smells like “Darkest Sandalwood” and not at all like rot or feet.