ON THE MARK

Here at Siena Heights, we have a lot of facilities and opportunities to receive assistance or care. There’s the church group that handles Mass and other religious services, the professors who challenge us to do our best, and plenty of advisors and counselors who help us handle university life.

They’re very helpful for students like you and me, but I’d like to talk about the people whose duty it is to make it so that civilized life is possible for the rest of us. These are the service personnel like cooks, waiters, custodians, mechanics and any other person in the industry.

We usually see the custodians wandering the halls with their tools, or a mechanic or technician inspecting key machinery on a daily basis. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we’re greeted by servers and taken care of by the busers. People like this are here to serve us and make sure we can go on with our lives in a pleasant and orderly way. But while their job is to serve ordinary people, it’s probably not the most entertaining occupation out there. Neither is it very… clean at times. Good ol’ honest work is typically done with the hands and a lot of manual labor, so it’s a strenuous thing to be in a service position.

Here’s a thought: It’s a terrible feeling not getting recognition or gratitude for work completed. Sometimes these service personnel can be taken for granted and are hardly appreciated for all that they do. The custodian or cleaning staff takes care of the bathrooms, yet at times I wander in and see paper towels strewn about, among other things. At restaurants or in the cafeteria, I notice food not being properly disposed of and tables left filthy, usually with a few napkins laying around nearby. Sometimes I see people leave areas without even trying to clean up after themselves, as if believing the busers would take care of it all.

One summer, I worked as a buser at a bar and grill in my hometown. I had to keep moving between the kitchen to wash dishes and the dining room to clear and clean tables. Most of the time the patrons were respectful and didn’t make too much of a mess. But sometimes I had to deal with unspeakable messes in the worst possible circumstances. I know that an accidental tipped glass or young child isn’t something one can control. And sometimes people mean well when they try to clean up their own mess – only to make it a little worse. Though my time as a buser was short (around three to four months), I gained an appreciation for service personnel during that experience.

Imagine if the bathrooms never got cleaned? With all the students using them on a daily basis, I’d imagine at the end of the week not even a monster would consider it acceptable. We as young adults have a duty to keep this world as livable as possible for ourselves and the next generation. If it means cleaning up after ourselves and flushing the toilet like we should, then so be it. The next time you’re in a community facility/establishment like a bathroom or restaurant/cafeteria, take a few seconds out of your busy routine to pick up some trash or clean your table enough so that it’s presentable.

Yes, it falls upon the service personnel to fix and clean everything up until it’s as spotless as stainless steel, but that doesn’t mean we can’t assist them in some way. I’d advise each of you to get a part-time job in the service industry so you can gain an appreciation for the people who make a living looking after us. And don’t forget to thank them for their service to the community!