I work as adminstrative support between two departments that are full of people who are on the phone all day. One of my tasks is to manage the headsets used in both departments. Whenever a headset is returned, such as when an employee leaves, or gets to use a brand new fancy headset, I have to clean the old headset and prepare it for use by whomever else might need it.
The whole headset cleaning operation is rather icky, what with the smell of rubbing alcohol and the general state of used telephone headsets. It's especially bad when the user wore lots of make up and/or hair product. Eww!
At some point while rubbing old concealer off with an alcohol-soaked paper towel, a small smile inevitably spreads across my face. I always get reminded of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, in which telephone cleaners are amongst those sent to their death due to uselessness. And then the humanoid population of the planet that sent the useless people away dies of a disease transmitted via dirty telephone receivers (if memory serves).
I get paid to clean phones.
; )
