As a lead station attendant at YYZ, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of colleagues. One of them, we’ll call him Bill, was a bit eccentric but generally a good guy. One day, we were tasked with taking the lavatory cart to the trichelator to dispose of the waste it had collected. When we got there, we realized we had forgotten the screwdriver we needed to remove the cap from the cart.
Bill, being the resourceful person he was, suggested that he could remove the cap without the screwdriver. I watched with a mix of amusement and trepidation as he struggled to open the cap, eventually succeeding but getting covered in the contents of the cart in the process. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but I also made sure to push Bill out of the way as quickly as possible to minimize the mess.
After we finished emptying the cart, I insisted that Bill go home and change out of his soiled clothes. Despite his initial reluctance, he eventually agreed and we were able to continue our shift with a higher level of hygiene and safety. While this was certainly a memorable experience, I’m glad that it was just a one-time occurrence and that we were able to learn from it.
