cockroaches in the workplace

Creepy places I worked in

Few were nice places, some dives and many were worse than that. The places I worked in will stick to my mind long than I care to remember. These will continue to haunt my being.

My very first job was in a dilapidated flat that had swarming cockroaches which you had to keep stepping on. They were cockroaches that were high on the walls, and you either had to wait till they crawled down or simply went away.

Then one day, the big boom happened, well not a big boom, but a short, sharp scream from me that let the wife of the chief editor thrust the door open. There was a lizard down on my shoe. All of a sudden I felt some movement at the hem of my trouser leg, I looked down, made a quick jerk and the lizard was on the floor making his getaway. She, hence, got used to my screaming and every time I made a shrill, she figured it out.

Then I worked in a place full of cramped computers where I, sitting at one end, gave me the feeling that I was directing an orchestra of writers on keyboards. Eventually the powers that be, my bosses, constructed a windowless room for me next door where I kept shouting at the reporters whilst editing. One day the big chief came in and I had to sit him next to a bag that had my boots and another, a tennis racket.

Here, the cockroaches and lizards hadn’t yet managed to infiltrate because of the relatively new added-on. However, we were eating in there in what seemed to be a night and day affair. So I suppose these little creepy crawlers would have soon made their presence felt, but I quickly exited the building and the place, in search of greener pastures.

My next job was in what seemed to be a palatial setting of many colors and faces. It was one very large floor building divided into nooks and crannies and sleazy sections, cutting off human life from one another. I suppose the floor was our oyster, the only thing we could do was look down and about and see black shoes, plimsolls or naked feet beyond the horizons.

It was glass windows and I used to see skyscrapers from where I was sitting amidst hovering hot sand dunes, you can almost feel the heat. It was surreal, my so-called boss used to spend her lunch break sitting on the floor bathing in the reflection of the sunshine, while the air conditioning hit her from behind. Sometimes she would take her shoes off no doubt oblivious to who was around, and against work rules decorum. Interesting to see toes sticking out from beyond my desk, or was it work-table.

I didn’t stay long there and the strolling for jobs continued. It was back to the cockroaches again, hideous little things which seem to follow to me everywhere I go. This was in a company, in an old house, that had few staff.

The floor was clean, but somehow I would find the odd one, starring at you, taking a stroll in the corridor or bathroom, begging to be stepped on but finding little company or few people around. No doubt anti spray would have done the trick but these little creatures were left to their own devices.

My magical world of work continued. This time it was in another new brand, full-works, stained glass windows. Here there was definitely none of the odious creatures but maybe this was due to the battery of Egyptian workers cleaning all day, all night if need be and including weekends. Here, it was no rest for the wicked.

This was a cockroach-free zone where the creepy crawlers were left outside the building. But I kept wondering when will they start manifesting through the offices because of the top-off-the-works, red and blue cafeteria or a café, to use a posh term.

I am now working in a basement with what looks like a desk from yesteryear, a rubbery top and metal legs, it looks black with streaks of dullish blue or is it grey. The cockroaches are in the corridor frequently being stepped on, we have occasional worms too, and I am told there are small lizards around.

By the way, flies are visiting us these days as well. But apart from that, life is fun minus the rats of course!