In times of uncertainty, take your cue from the janitor

Raymond Chen

A friend of mine told a story of a time his flight to a foreign country was delayed by several hours, and the flight finally arrived shortly before the airport closed for the night. He retrieved his bags from the baggage carousel and waited for his hosts to come pick him up.

While he waited, the closing time of the airport passed. He was the only person left in the airport, except for a janitor who was busy mopping the floor.

And then there was a commotion at the other end of the baggage claim. A team of police with their weapons drawn scurried into the building, hiding behind walls and other structures, as if they were searching for an armed intruder.

My friend was rather worried at this display of force and wondered what was going on.

Then he looked over at the janitor. The janitor continued to mop the floor, unphased by the hubbub surrounding him.

My friend breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that the janitor remained unperturbed told him that this was probably some sort of training exercise that the police did every night after closing, or at least frequently enough that the janitor knew that it was nothing to be concerned about.

Topics

Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

16 comments

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Elias Bachaalany June 10, 2019

There's a lot you can learn from janitors ;) Here's a story for you that my dad shared with me:
-=-=
Once upon a time, a man was looking for a job. He reads about a janitor position in Microsoft Corporation.
He applies and soon enough he lands an interview. The interviewer starts asking the man some questions and then notices that the man forgot to fill in his email address.
The interviewer: “Oh, it seems you forgot to type in your email address”
The man: “No I did not forget. Actually, I don’t have an email account
”The interviewer:...
Read more
There’s a lot you can learn from janitors 😉 Here’s a story for you that my dad shared with me:
-=-=
Once upon a time, a man was looking for a job. He reads about a janitor position in Microsoft Corporation.
He applies and soon enough he lands an interview. The interviewer starts asking the man some questions and then notices that the man forgot to fill in his email address.
The interviewer: “Oh, it seems you forgot to type in your email address”
The man: “No I did not forget. Actually, I don’t have an email account
”The interviewer: “You don’t have an email? Well sorry, you cannot work for Microsoft in that case”

The man left the interview site, feeling very sad. While walking home, he checks his pocket to see how much money he has left and finds a 10$ bill.Looking at the only money he got, he thought: “If I use the money now to buy some food, then I won’t have any more money left for tomorrow”.As he continued walking towards his home, he sees a man selling vegetables. He decides to buy a box of tomatoes for 10$ (using all the money he had left). He then stops near his humble apartment and tries to sell that box of tomatoes for 14$ (to make a 4$ profit).
So day after day, that man started buying more vegetables and selling them for more profit. After a year he became of one the most successful vegetable seller. He excelled at it and made a lot of money that he became famous.
One day, a local reporter wanted to interview him and hear his success story. The man started telling the reporter how at first he was selling only tomatoes, then after a while more vegetables, then fruits then other grocery items.
Towards the end of the interview, the reporter thanked the man for his time and told him: “Oh by the way, in case I want to follow up with you and ask you more questions, can we stay in touch? Can you give me your email address please?”
The man replied: “Oh sorry, I don’t have an email account”
The reporter: “Really? How come successful person like you does not have an email account? Imagine the success you would have had if you had an email account!”
Then the man replied: “If I had an email account, I would be still working as a janitor at Microsoft”

Read less
cheong00 May 28, 2019

I wonder why the janitors keep mopping the floor as the police rush in. Shouldn’t he stop until the police finished whatever they need to do?
They probably need to mob the floor again after the police rush out the building.
- Raymond Chen Author May 29, 2019
  
  That’s why he starts mopping at the opposite end of the building from where the police do their exercises. (Or maybe he asks the police to use clean shoes.) I didn’t ask for details on the relative positions of the janitor, my friend, and the police.
Alexey Badalov May 28, 2019

Friend’s reaction: “my theory is the armed intruder was posing as a janitor, effectively fooling everyone.”
- Ji Luo May 28, 2019
  
  This is also the first theory that came into my mind…
  - cej@nightwolf.org.uk May 30, 2019
    
    Nah, the mild mannered janitor is hong kong phooey.
  - smf May 30, 2019
    
    Could be
smf May 28, 2019

What if the janitor isn’t skilled enough to tell the difference between the regular training sessions and an actual incident? He will be right more often, but when he is wrong then it could go very wrong
- Raymond Chen Author May 29, 2019
  
  If you’re going to be an armed intruder, make sure to do it at exactly 1am in the baggage claim where there is guaranteed to be a group of armed police already searching for an armed intruder.
  - smf May 30, 2019
    
    If it’s christmas and there is a guy in a dirty white vest crawling around, ignore the janitor