Recently, I had a situation in my office with asking a co-worker (who has worked here 15+ years, so would know more) about what to do with a situation where the restroom had been made a mess by someone.
Well upon telling them this, I was told that was not something they wanted to hear and it was gross, even though I used no vivid imagery or descriptive terms. Very clean, generic, plain, sanitary terminology…as not to offend, of course.
Now as bad as I felt, I began to feel irked. Why, you ask?
Well, this was a person who no more than 2 months after I got here was talking about having been a wild child, boldly called people (of fame/notariety) insensitive, bigoted, derogatory terms, used vulgar language, and had been part of a story of viewing (laughingly according to others) pictures of…let’s just say…something that was left in the facilities at one time in the past.
So, this person is no “Virgin Mary” when it comes to having to tolerate things, let alone my indirect, very cleansed reference to someone’s inability to aim properly.
At this point (since I have other suspicions about other things that I think this person has done in regards to me), I am worried that this person might see this as a leverage tool to use to get me in a difficult situation and try to use it to get me in trouble for “insensitivity” or something politically correct.
What would you do if put in this situation?
Would you have told them “Oh deal with it…” or been apologetic like me?