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August 31, 2004

WHY do cleaners responsible paper towel and toilet paper dispensers fill them so full that it's impossible to pull sheets out without them tearing?

You would think, wouldn't you, that the fuller the dispenser, the less often it should have to be filled?

But no, over fill dispensers and the quantity of shredded paper all over the floor of every toilet increases disproportionately.

The anger of the users increases too - probably making 'paper rage' the latest stressor to be identified by the world's overraught psychologists and therapists.

Compressing paper in dispensers too much means the sheets can't be separated. You would think that was common sense, wouldn't you?

The rationality of the physics is obviously beyond the intelligence many.

The next question must, therefore, be who are these people?

Are they managers trying to reduce the number of times the paper dispensers have to be filled?

If they are, then they clearly have developed all the symptoms of private sector 'bean-counter-it is' - that inate inability to realise that trying to cut one cost may increase another, in this case both the need for floor cleaning and customer dissatisfaction.

If it is the cleaners themselves, are there demarcations between the dispenser fillers and the floor washers?

Has internecine warfare broken out, more strongly than in the days of the worst excesses of industrial skills being observed and protected by the most prehistoric of trade unions?

This question is more academic than practical. The roles of those who took the decisions are irrelevant in the context of the mess and dismay they have - indirectly - caused.

So, please, let's have slightly less paper, a few more dispenser-filling rounds, leading to greater tidiness, happier users and a more peaceful world …