You complain, yet contribute to the problem!

[LillFilly]

A couple of the stores next to Entrance A have been complaining to me weekly about how much trash and cig. butts are on the ground outside. Unfortunately, the wind comes towards that L-shaped area of the building and deposits every napkin, baggie and receipt within 1/2 mile there. It's A LOT to clean up every day. The cig. butts are, granted, annoying and were the stores' biggest complaint. We DO have nice big containers specifically for cigarettes right by every door. 2-feet out of your way, that's all it takes.

What do I see those employees doing one morning as they come in? As they get to the door every. single. one. of the smokers FLICKS THEIR BUTTS onto the ground!

So, basically they're bitching that we don't clean up after them. They aren't the only employees that do this, and frankly the employees seem to be a bigger problem than the customers. I think I'll be going to management about this; maybe fine the stores for employees caught throwing their trash on the ground. Some of them figure though, that since they pay rent, they can treat the mall like crap.

[Redbeard]

To be honest, I find that most smokers are like that. Most friends that I've had that smoke know that my home is non smoking, and if they smoke there's a butt can, but get them to a public place (even work) and there's more butts flying around than a homo erotic trapeze act.

[Peppergirl]

Okay.

*sigh*

Lets just head this off before the inevitable starts: Lets NOT turn this into a smoker bashing or smoker -vs- non smoker thread. Focus instead on the fact that they are littering, being disrespectful and expecting others to clean up after them.

If the thread goes down the usual 'smoker bashing' path, it will be shut down and that's not fair to LilFilly.

Thanks.

[Redbeard]

You're right, I should have phrased that differently.
Perhaps we should just think of al those poor flying butts left alone and sad in the street and by buildings...so ronery...

[bainsidhe]

Unless management are smokers and contributing to the problem, they probably don't even realize their own employees are contributing to the problem. Yes, complain to management. A good, swift crackdown is in order. And yeah, I've never understood people who can't walk two feet (hell, they can't walk two damn inches!) to toss trash, cigs, whatever. There's a reason the recycle bin is always full of garbage, ugh.

Out of curiosity, who actually cleans that stuff up? If it's up to the individual business, I'd be annoyed and making those same employees clean up the trash.

[Seshat]

Some of them figure though, that since they pay rent, they can treat the mall like crap.

They're wrong.

The state of the mall contributes to whether customers come to the mall. They get more customers if the whole mall is lovely: and they're part of what can make the mall lovely. Or yucky.

Treating the mall like crap means (a) their rent increases to cover the costs of fixing the crap they make, or (b) fewer customers come because the mall has been crapped on.

[LillFilly]

They're wrong.

The state of the mall contributes to whether customers come to the mall. They get more customers if the whole mall is lovely: and they're part of what can make the mall lovely. Or yucky.

Treating the mall like crap means (a) their rent increases to cover the costs of fixing the crap they make, or (b) fewer customers come because the mall has been crapped on.

EXACTLY! And they contribute to the trash too. They sit outside the fire doors to eat lunch or talk on the phone and leave their cups, plates, food wrappers on the ground. Or they just throw the trash in the fire hallway. And it's always a fight between Maintenance and Cleaning about who should pick up the mess. The Cleaning Supervisor won't clean anything outside the Entrances unless you ask, and then he argues that if it's outside it's Maintenance's job. Nooooo....It's on the ground, sweep it up. Maintenance only does the heavy stuff outside. But then the Cleaning Supervisor is a lazy ass anyway.

[fireheart]

And it's worse when people treat the ashtrays as trashcans.

My previous job had a big metal cylinder sitting outside the entrance to the store where people could chuck their butts before going into the store. Despite there being a MASSIVE KESAB sticker on it (which is associated with cigarettes) and a bin nearby, people will chuck everything in there-soft drink lids, receipts etc.

Several times they have had small fires or something has started to smoke in there, leading the staff at the checkout area to go and douse the damn thing with the flower water.

Most smokers I have seen and interacted around at least do have the decency to smoke in the designated areas or if it's a family/friends event, they will go outside for a quick smoke. If there's a lot of people over, the smokers find their own area away from the main groups to smoke.

[PepperElf]

This sounds like the people I use to have to deal with at one of my shore commands. Only it wasn't limited to butts.

Sure... the smoke-break area was trashed, and people couldn't be bothered to use the containers, even though we had SEVERAL right there. But it went beyond that.

The basic attitude was "The military will clean it up". And yes someone actually said that (According to M) while walking down the hallway, sloshing coffee on the floor.


The truly sucky thing was that it wasn't the real workers doing it. The real workers, the ones working in the giant workshop were the ones who cleaned up after themselves the most. The worst offenders were the paper-pushers.

And on top of that, instead of telling them "clean up after yourself" our boss tended to agree and even started making janitorial schedules for us. I mean granted sure that can be part of our job but... seriously? We have to clean up after paper-pushers who think they're too important to even get their trash in the right area?

And, to add some salt to the wounds... we really DID have a cleaning crew. However apparently the command couldn't - or didn't like - having to afford to pay them. So this added even more cleaning days on for us.

[protege]

Treating the mall like crap means (a) their rent increases to cover the costs of fixing the crap they make, or (b) fewer customers come because the mall has been crapped on.

It's not just the malls--quite a few city neighborhoods are like that too. Residents who live there, will toss their trash in the streets, or in vacant lots, and then get pissed when their taxes go up, or people stay away...because the area looks like a trash dump. Garbage tends to attract more garbage.

[Misanthropical]

I was backing out of a space at the grocery store and was watching a mother and her 3 year old, since I didn't want to hit them. The child was carrying a paper cup from a fast food place, which he threw on the ground while his mother watched. She didn't even slow down let alone stop and pick it up. There was a garbage can less than 12 feet away from her that she had to pass to go where she was going.

The worse is people who dump crap filled diapers in the parking lot instead of walking their lazy asses over to the garbage cans that are all over the place. That is not counting those who stop at a red light and dump an over flowing ash tray out on the ground. I am a smoker (trying to quit, again) as is Mr. Mis but it would never enter our minds to do something like that, what kind of disgusting pig thinks that is acceptable?

[PepperElf]

people are lazy.

where i work now, if there's no bag in the trash can they don't care. They'll toss juicy wet food right in it and then wonder why it fucking stinks like rotted ass.

even my military coworkers were nasty at times - paper and plastic separation? Fuck that it's too difficult to do it.

[Redbeard]

And it's worse when people treat the ashtrays as trashcans. .

This a thousand times!
It's there, smokers are using it, the place looks nice, and people fill it with garbage.... Makes me want to stand there and just kick people

[Peppergirl]

This a thousand times!
It's there, smokers are using it, the place looks nice, and people fill it with garbage.... Makes me want to stand there and just kick people

This. So very much.

Drove me nuts when I smoked (and I was a polite smoker) and would extinguish my cigarette in a proper container, only to notice it starting to flame up moments later due to some asshat dumping trash in there.

Just proves that rude, trashy, entitled people come in smoking AND non-smoking forms.

[Bright_Star]

Butts go in the can or it's your butt that gets canned...lol.