ASS out of U and ME

I have a funny way of making certain assumptions in spite of the evidence that making assumptions is a pointless waste of energy. For example, I tend to assume that the people I work with are all sensible, responsible adults. I maintain assumptions such as this right up until I am given a reason to make a new assumption. It simplifies life to pigeonhole everyone, you know? A number of office events have taken place that have forced me to reassess my assumptions about my coworkers.

• Though we have community kitchens, there are those who feel that they are not required to participate in the communal responsibilities, such as rinsing out the sink and the sponge after use, replacing empty paper towel rolls, making a new pot of coffee when they empty the old one, wiping up their microwave oven messes, and opening a new box of plastic silverware after taking the last one. I'm sure that every office has these people in one incarnation or another.
• Even worse, we had a charming female employee who developed a habit of wiping boogers on the bathroom wall.
• I've seen gum on the ceiling, which made me wonder just how hard you have to throw a wad of gum to make it stick to acoustic tiling 10 feet over your head.
• And to top them all off, our men's and women's locker rooms were vandalized a few months ago, probably by the same person. Now we have to sign up to use them and have our card key coded for access to them.

I work in an expensive new building in downtown Seattle in a reasonably high-tech company, and yet we hire people of this caliber. It is disheartening. I like to believe that we, as American adults making between $40,000 and $500,000 a year, are a bit better than that, but obviously I should not labor under that impression any longer.

My new assumption? From Profe Noteboom of North Kitsap High School, I learned in 1986 the following saying in Spanish: Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda. Though the monkey is dressed in silk, she is still a monkey. I think it applies nicely, and it is always fun to invoke the power of monkeys.