comment: >
  
  I mean yeah, you are right, they are chemicals, but that doesent make it ant less disgusting
context: Bodily waste can literally be a biohazard. Plus it stinks. It's gross.
  And, if anything, this should increase the amount of respect people have for janitors. People look down on it simply because they're selfish idiots who feel the need to be "above" someone, but janitors are some of the most important and underpaid people out there. Be proud of what you do, because it enables the rest of us to feel civilized and sanitary. 
  If all janitors stopped showing up to work, those people who look down upon them would be among the first to complain. >
  
  I'm pretty sure OP's view is something most janitors acquire after they get used to it. >
  
  Honestly, I'm not sure how people don't get it from cleaning their own bathroom at home. >
  
  do you think people piss and shit everywhere in their bathrooms? how often do you think people clean their bathrooms where something like vomit becomes not gross? >
  
  I piss on my walls to mark my territory >
  
  but you don’t clean it up right? half the point still stands >
  
  I think people have an instinctual aversion to poop, especially, because of the potential of bacterial poisoning. I don't think you can become sick from inhaling poop smells all the time, but you definitely don't want to go around touching poop with your bare hands at all. >
  
  Human poop is definitely not something that washes off of skin easily. You'll be stuck with the smell for a while. >
  
  
  This stuff is only disgusting because of the way people tend to look at it.
  
  so... it's disgusting for the reasons that anything is disgusting >
  
  It’s only disgusting if you look at it. Or smell it. Or touch it. >
  
  I mean, it makes sense that humans would be more repulsed by body waste than something like chlorine.
  We have had to deal with getting rid of our body waste for thousands of years. We haven't had concentrated chlorine for more than a few hundred years. >
  
  I work in solid waste. People love to act like I’m a bottom feeder in between asking to borrow money for stuff because none of them have good benefits. >
  
  I was a janitor for the community college I attended at 18yo. I cleaned 4 buildings in only 3 hours which left the rest of my 8hour shift completely open. It was weird because I was cleaning up after my "peers" yet they were the ones shouting "it's f**ked up you're a woman AND a janitor" and catcalling and other stuff. The stigma for this job really sucks, and you're right. You ARE protected at all times via gloves, disinfectant etc. if you use them correctly. If anything, janitors need more recognition because it'd be a helluva lot dirtier without them. >
  
  
  "it's f**ked up you're a woman AND a janitor"
  
  What? Why? What does gender have to do with being a janitor? >
  
  Cause Janitors are men, firefighters are men, nurses are women, teachers are women, and hairdressers are, um, flamboyant...
  ...
  And her peers are from the 1910s.
  \/s (except for the last line) >
  
  you mean firemen? >
  
  Damn. That totally would have been better :D >
  
  Sounds no different to being a nurse. >
  
  I've done janitorial work in medical facilities, it's a lot different than working in a movie theater or an office building.  In a medical facility, the doctors, the nursing staff and the janitorial staff are all in total agreement that there is absolutely no such thing as "good enough", everything has to be done properly to code and often needs to be documented.
  Vacuuming a movie theater hallway was a job I could have (and have) done stoned, but in a medical facility, the thing you forget to disinfect could be the thing that kills a patient or is ground zero of an outbreak. >
  
  I typed out a pretty long comment elsewhere, but I’m shocked to hear this. 
  At the hospital I worked at, the nurses and techs were grateful if we had the trash bags changed. On a med surg floor, I can promise you no one had the time to critique the room’s cleanliness. 
  Now in ICU, they def are more particular, but for good reason. But ICU had their own janitorial staff, who were so nice and did great jobs and I was so jealous of the ICU’s janitorial staff. >
  
  Dude, I used to be great friends with the Janitor who worked in our building. He got paid almost as much as the people who worked there, and he had a freaking smooth job. Doesn't really have a supervisor breathing down his neck, doesn't really have to answer to anyone directly, works at his own pace, has keys to every god damn door in the building, and knows how to properly strip and seal a tile floor. I envied his position, and would have swapped places with him at any time. 
  I guess people don't really realize that Janitors do more than just clean toilets and bathrooms. Sure, that's part of their job, but it's an insignificant part compared to all the other work the man did. I applied several times for the position, but as it turns out, you need actual education to become a proper Janitor, because you'll be handling a lot of chemicals. Stripping, sealing, waxing and polishing floors properly is some serious science, and it looks fun as hell to me. >
  
  Upvoted for truly unpopular opinion >
  
  I appreciate the janitorial work. 
  However, the ways grown adults have destroyed a stall at my companies office is enough for me to never want to be in that position.  A janitor shouldn't have to put on a biohazard suit because somehow someone got their shit everywhere except in the toilet. >
  
  You know it's a bad day at work when you have to bring the deck sprayer to clean the bathroom stalls >
  
  Dirty Jobs is such a good show. We need people like you, OP! >
  
  The host is a bullshit artist though >
  
  Why do you think that?
  Edit: People on Reddit are in their own little bubble. They downvote an innocent question. Mike Rowe may be anti-union, but at least he is for free speech and encouraging discussion. >
  
  I was gonna say. But comment below shows it. 
  Dude is anti union fukin actor >
  
  Good, unions are inefficient, unfair to young workers, and counter to those who wish to be recognized for the merits of their hard work. This is to say nothing of their history of corruption and voting fraud.
  There was a time when they were needed, and that time has passed.
  Don't like it? Tough titties. >
  
  I’m part of a union and I disagree >
  
  Disagreement is allowed. >
  
  Thanks for letting me know. I totally didn’t when I disagreed >
  
  I've been doing direct patient care for 13 years and I've dealt with pee, poop, vomit, blood, you name it. I've learned you can touch all this stuff, it's not going to stick to your hands forever, you just wash them off when you're done and clean under your nails. Yes it's gross to touch poop or urine but as soon as you wash your hands it's gone. >
  
  That's exactly what I'm saying.  Unlike the cleaning chemicals which will dissolve your skin and knock you out with fumes, bodily waste is not dangerous as long as you keep it away from your mouth and open wounds.
  I find it interesting that even after the events of 2020, washing one's hands after touching something is still such a foreign concept. >
  
  It's disgusting because of the easily transferable diseases... >
  
  Which is why gloves exist. >
  
  I have the utmost respect for the ones who do the “dirty jobs”.
  Sanitation workers should be respected and revered. 
  I appreciate and LOVE a clean place, let alone a restroom. It’s important! It’s necessary, it’s healthy, it’s good all around. 
  For those who think of it negatively, you can go fuck yourselves. Thanks, bye. >
  
  The disgust comes from human evolution. 
  "Way back when," we were overwhelmingly more likely to catch a disease from coming into contact with someone's pee, feces, blood, or vomit. As a result, humans have a programmed disgust response for these things. 
  In the modern world, things like hydrogen sulfide and fentanyl and uranium and every other massively dangerous material have only really existed for maybe a century. No one is disgusted by methylmercury, because nothing has programmed you to be afraid of it, despite it being very lethal. 
  Which is strange, because I think that if you asked the average person to drink a gallon of bleach or a gallon of piss, it'd be really hard to convince them not to drink the bleach. >
  
  I was with you until the last sentence. If youre drinking bleach over piss, then youre an idiot >
  
  I mean, how diluted in the bleach? I would rather drink very diluted bleach (aka water purification tablets) than pee. >
  
  Id assume they mean bleech and not water purification tablets lmfao >
  
  Thank you for what you do! It's not an easy job and our society depends on you. >
  
  I don't mind cleaning it's the people I don't like. They either look at you funny, complain, or expect you to do the work of five people. >
  
  I have a drain that backs up every now and then because there’s a slight defect in how the drain pipe is laid. 99% of the time it works just fine. 
  The contents of the expansion chamber are pretty vile but a flushed, well-running drain is a thing of beauty. >
  
  I clean at a hospital. There are days when I feel like I'm doing more to keep the patients safe and healthy more than the medical "professionals" I'm around. 
  Yes, the staff are judging you. And your family. For every. Little. Thing. >
  
  As a tech and a student rn, I worked on a unit with janitorial staff that did NOTHING. I worked nights and we could never, ever get them to do anything for us. 
  The nurses already have unsafe patient ratios, I’m the only tech for the whole unit, and we had to do the majority of the janitorial work. Trash would overflow, used needles are spilling out of the needle bin, we almost never had clean linen and had to start cutting up blankets to use as towels for patients. I had to take out the trash for the whole unit, because the nurses can’t leave the unit. Nurses didn’t know where to dispose of the used needles because we didn’t have the proper tools to dispose of them safely. The staff had special gloves and bins they put them in.
  I know for a fact our particular unit’s janitorial staff were lazy. Nothing to do with them have a janitor job, they were just rude, lazy people. The ICU at my hospital had their own janitorial staff. They were so kind and sweet and did such a good job cleaning the rooms I wanted to cry when I saw how good they had it. I got floated to the ICU one time, and the custodial lady came out of a room and told me she had it cleaned and ready to go for a new admit and I wanted to hug her because I had never had a room set up for me, usually I had to clean and prepare the rooms on my unit. 
  I have a ton of respect for the staff who do their best for the sake of the patients. I am sorry if you feel as if you’re going unnoticed for your work. I promise you not all of medical staff is so mean, I would’ve brought you candy had I seen that level of compassion for your patients :) 
  Keep it up for the patients! That’s why we do it! >
  
  That's how it is here. Afternoon and overnight cleaning staff are usually agency, making twice our rate, and doing maybe an eighth of the work. Don't even get me started on how inconsistent and half-assed their discharge cleans are, which I have to spend half my morning going over to correct. Resentment? Hell yes. >
  
  Agreed dude! Cleaning up shit is way better than dealing with peoples shit attitudes! >
  
  Oh I respect the profession; anyone willing to engage with that part of life from garbagemen to janitorial staff to basic maid and house keeping work; it's a dangerous profession. 
  But it's disgusting because of the textures and the smells, my guy. It's not disrespectful to admit that people find human waste disgusting because it's a survival instinct coded into our brains. >
  
  A bunch of "adults" who are scared to death of poop.  I don't know what these people were taught, but many seem to think that touching it while wearing gloves is the same as eating it, or that it's highly radioactive or whatever. >
  
  Saw some of those posts. Those people are childish as hell >
  
  At one point I mentioned that mopping up dried blood isn't all that different than mopping up a dried spilled sugar drink.  2 different people responded to that by claiming that I just said you can drink blood and be fine.  
  How in the fuck can anybody be that stupid? >
  
  Idiots are a majority of the world, reddit included. This place can be a cesspool of idiocy at times >
  
  As a heathcare worker I can definitely agree. 
  I pull the line at vomit tho. Cannot with that. >
  
  I probably wouldn’t be disgusted if I was tasked with cleaning it as a job, in that case I know what to expect and come prepared. If I’m at work in the office and I gotta clean shit and piss I would be disgusted. It all depends on if I am expecting it or not. >
  
  If I know that there's a decent chance it will be part of my job at some point, I expect it. >
  
  People like you keep this country moving unironically >
  
  I really would love to see the chaos that would happen if every janitor went on strike at the same time.  That will never happen though since a large portion of janitors are recent immigrants struggling to settle in and can't afford to go without work for any reason. >
  
  A janitor union would cripple America. I’m all for it. Get what you deserve >
  
  It's disgusting, because "limiting your exposure" to hepatitis isn't really how hepatitis is avoided. >
  
  The casino I worked as a janitor (technically a porter) would give us "Bio Bucks" which were a bonus $5 or $10 in our paycheck for each nasty biohazard mess we had to clean up. It really incentivized us to find, report, and clean it up lickety-split, and do a good job because the shift lead would inspect the before and after to see if it was worth 5 or 10 (or more if we had to shut down the restroom). >
  
  Lava is not dangerous. It's nothing more than a molten rock you want to limit your exposure to. This stuff is only dangerous because of how people tend to look at it. >
  
  Shit won't melt your skin off or kill you instantly.  Just don't put random shit in your mouth and you'll be fine.  I don't understand how this is such a hard concept to grasp.  Shit is not radioactive, it doesn't absorb in your skin, the only way you can get sick from it is if it gets inside you. >
  
  Your last line says it all, "as long as I don't put too much thought into it" you can psych yourself into believing most things but that does not make them true, waste from living things will always be gross, hell the way our bodies work in general is disgusting, even the way we talk is pretty gross if you think about our tongues slapping around in our mouths.  That being said it just makes me respect people in janitorial positions even more. >
  
  This is kind of post that gets weirder as you explain more. Di you pick up a new kink? >
  
  Not a sexual one, but I will say that walking into a disgusting bathroom and walking out of a pristine one half an hour later is a very satisfying feeling which puts me in a good mood for whatever else I'm going to encounter in my day. >
  
  We would all be lucky to find that kind of satisfaction in our jobs. >
  
  Whenever I see poop I imagine eating it and the texture and it getting in between my teeth and the smell there would be if I was chewing it so I don't like to see poop >
  
  Sure, blame the poop for those thoughts >
  
  I treat everyone the same from janitor to CEO!! I have mad respect for janitors. >
  
  I have had to deal with this stuff, and without proper PPE (just plain disposable gloves). Even then it wasn't a thing to freak out over. >
  
  Janitors and cleaning staff are generally far more valuable than managers in companies. >
  
  I find bodily waste to be unbelievably disgusting, I’m a severe emetophobe/germaphobe so I have major respect for janitors who are able to clean that stuff with no issue >
  
  It's a natural reaction to warn us not to injest it or come in contact.  We are more used to our own shit and piss, but it still stinks. >
  
  It's not just chemicals though. It's bacteria, viruses, and diseases. There's a reason we naturally have such an aversion to it. It is truly a dangerous substance. >
  
  Nobody ever says being a doctor or surgeon is gross even though its 10x more smelly etc >
  
  Uh no all the respect to cleaning service jobs but that stuff is still disgusting >
  
  “Poop isn’t gross it’s just waste material that we squeeze out of our arseholes”
  Bro that’s gross >
  
  OP's 5 senses are all broken, or he's a badger >
  
  Nope, I can smell it, I just don't care.  There's plenty of stuff I have to work with that smells 1000 times worse than shit.  Chlorine for example, that smell is a fume that can kill you.  Shit won't kill you unless you handle it without washing your hands before you eat. >
  
  Broken senses confirmed >
  
  
  I've even had to clean period blood off the stall walls after someone tried using their tampon as a marker
  
  Ive heard womens bathrooms are a whole different level of disgusting but holy shit >
  
  All girl’s high school… can confirm. There’s sickos out there.
  I’m sure boys peeing out of a window is the equivalent. >
  
  This feels like the next expression of reddits love for tasting asses. >
  
  “I’ve seen things “ I’m a plumber. It’s not  that bad. It’s not that’ bad because it’s like printing money. Once after a hurricane, like two weeks after this landlord guy gets my email & number. Tennants said toilet won’t flush , we go there the guy shows us the bathroom & leaves.we lift the seat & find out they been along using the toilet… we go to the truck & I emailed landlord tell him wats up & give him a we don’t wanna do it price. He replied ok, yes, do it. So we are like Fuuuuuûkkk.. bck in we go bandannas on stick the hand snake in& 5 minutes we are do >
  
  Much respect to those who clean bathrooms.
  It's a jobs which keeps us civilized. >
  
  Most people are marshmallow soft little bitches. You're a king bro. Thanks for keeping all ours facilities tight. >
  
  
  This stuff is only disgusting because of the way people tend to look at it.
  
  Congratulations on figuring out what the root cause of "disgust" is, I guess?
  Disgust is an emotion caused by how we perceive something. Nothing is objectively disgusting. It's all opinion. >
  
  Let me introduce you to bloodborne pathogens! >
  
  Let me introduce you to personal protective equipment and other safety guidelines that make it possible for millions of janitors to work every day without getting sick from it. >
  
  I get that but it doesnt mean it's just sugar water you can drink like you described. >
  
  I never said you can drink it.  If you found an old soda can on tje sidewalk, would you assume it's safe to drink from it?
  The point is, if you get it on your hand and you don't have any open wounds, there will be no trace of it once you wash your hands, it's not like it will be absorbed into your skin the moment you make contact. >
  
  Bruh likes to play with poop and say it ain’t gross.
  My dude people are grossed out by shit for a reason, because it is literally a biohazard that can make you sick.
  Bro has no issue with getting E.coli and pink-eye. >
  
  Your attitude is way more disturbing than poop.
  OP cleans up poop wearing PPE.  He doesn't "play with it" and won't get infected by anything because he can read and follow directions.  Not a common skill these days... >
  
  Aversion to fecal matter is a social construct. Now that is a take I haven't heard before. >
  
  I mean, body fluids and feces are the cause of a lot of health issues, and fatality so idk what you’re on about. >
  
  If you clean it up while wearing protective gloves and a face shield, how is it a problem?
  Also, just like anything else you do in the bathroom, you wash your hands when you're done. >
  
  It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a biohazard, which is why people have the right to be grossed out by it. > >
  
  I get what you mean, really, and from my perspective, I agree. But I think finding bodily fluids disgusting is a normal reaction imo so I wouldn't be too hard on people who do find it disgusting. From my point of view, it's a job like any other. >
  
  R. Kelly has entered the thread. >
  
  This isn't an unpopular opinion it's just fucking stupid. I can't insult you personally but I think I can insult your opinion. And this is one of the dumbest opinions I've ever read on this subreddit.
  As a janitor you're literally dealing with biohazardous waste. Disgusting is an adjective used to describe a variety of things you would want to limit your exposure to or not be exposed to at all.
  Look if you're one of them people who isn't bothered by the sights and smells of that kind of shit, great. Janitorial work is a great line of work for you.
  Most people are grossed out by the site or sound of somebody vomiting, most people can't stand the smell of a fresh log of shit. I understand maybe personally not being as grossed out by some of this shit as other people but to actually have this opinion, you just have to have a complete lack of empathy, a complete inability to put yourself in other people's shoes.
  Goofy ass troll ass take. >
  
  OP enjoys this job a little too much >
  
  OP enjoys not starving or being homeless, but you can either hate your job or find ways to not hate it.  I've tried both, and hating your job just makes your life suck overall, so I strongly suggest not doing that.
  If you really hate what you do, do something else, but if you can put up with something that a lot of people would outright refuse to even consider, that puts you in a desirable place in the job market. >
  
  Sound like you got some shit to get off your chest >
  
  I just had yet another conversation with someone who's tone took a really negative turn as soon as I mentioned that I'm a janitor again.
  It just annoys the shit out of me that despite having a decent job that pays my bills and doesn't work me to death, what I'm temporarily doing for a living apparently means I have completely failed at life.
  People are gonna talk shit no matter what, that's not gonna change, it's just annoying that there's so many people working hard doing tasks that are absolutely essential and yet they get almost less than no respect for it. >
  
  Reddit is fully privileged people with zero self-awareness. >
  
  Give this man a raise. >
  
  Bro's never heard of viruses >
  
  Bro's never heard of washing your hands before eating