If you are not a janitor, you know what one is. He (or she, janitress) goes about the work of straightening and cleaning, usually when no one else is around. The office or the building is busy with people during the day, but after hours, a lone occupant or an occupying crew moves efficiently through the place, typically in some preordained order that includes wastebaskets, floors, and restroom facilities. When the new day arrives, no one has to look back on the mess of the previous day. From the daytime occupants’ perspectives, all is new and fresh; a cycle has been completed.
In many instances, janitors have large key chains with numerous keys, one for every door. How unlike the CEO’s key chain. The master key opens all. As the saying goes, “Fewer keys, more authority.” The master (or mistress) has control.
Janitor derives from the Roman god Janus, the two-faced god who looks both forward and backward and is associated with New Year celebrations and the month, obviously, January. And the word includes in its meaning “gate,” “doorway,” and even “travel.” Janitor is more than cleaner; janitor is doorkeeper, so maybe all those keys have more than a utilitarian purpose. Maybe they are also symbolic.
In the hierarchy of organizations janitors dwell at the bottom, but no new day begins in promise without their overnight work. Office chaos or inefficiency is the destiny without their control of place. They transition previous workday to current workday, and for the office workers, that transition seems like some daily renewal.
But what about that expression concerning the number of keys? Is the janitor important when his key chain is cumbersome, whereas that of the CEO is not? It’s a matter of your perspective. If you believe the world works “top-down,” then the CEO is all important. If you believe it works “bottom-up,” janitors play a significant role.
The contributions of all those unseen doorkeepers, seemingly insignificant, become significant in their absence. Bottom-up, many keys opening many doors, might be the way places operate efficiently despite beliefs to the contrary. Maybe the holder of a single key is an authority only because all those other key holders work cooperatively when no one is looking. They are in a unique position. Like some ancient god, they see the mess of the previous day and are first to see a renewed place fresh for the mess of the next day. They keep cleaning, and the office workers and CEO keep messing.
Is there some political lesson in this?
In many instances, janitors have large key chains with numerous keys, one for every door. How unlike the CEO’s key chain. The master key opens all. As the saying goes, “Fewer keys, more authority.” The master (or mistress) has control.
Janitor derives from the Roman god Janus, the two-faced god who looks both forward and backward and is associated with New Year celebrations and the month, obviously, January. And the word includes in its meaning “gate,” “doorway,” and even “travel.” Janitor is more than cleaner; janitor is doorkeeper, so maybe all those keys have more than a utilitarian purpose. Maybe they are also symbolic.
In the hierarchy of organizations janitors dwell at the bottom, but no new day begins in promise without their overnight work. Office chaos or inefficiency is the destiny without their control of place. They transition previous workday to current workday, and for the office workers, that transition seems like some daily renewal.
But what about that expression concerning the number of keys? Is the janitor important when his key chain is cumbersome, whereas that of the CEO is not? It’s a matter of your perspective. If you believe the world works “top-down,” then the CEO is all important. If you believe it works “bottom-up,” janitors play a significant role.
The contributions of all those unseen doorkeepers, seemingly insignificant, become significant in their absence. Bottom-up, many keys opening many doors, might be the way places operate efficiently despite beliefs to the contrary. Maybe the holder of a single key is an authority only because all those other key holders work cooperatively when no one is looking. They are in a unique position. Like some ancient god, they see the mess of the previous day and are first to see a renewed place fresh for the mess of the next day. They keep cleaning, and the office workers and CEO keep messing.
Is there some political lesson in this?
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