12.11.2008

Pollution

In my life, there are all kinds of special pollutants.
Of course, there's the obligatory smog (it's pretty awfu!), but there are other pollutants that I barely think about until I come stumbling across them.

We all know about the variety of pollutants out there: toxin waste in the water, nasty chems in the air, smelly garbage that leaves our tailpipes.... but what about all the waste that isn't so tangible?
At work, they're doing some construction on our ceiling and it's filling my office environment with some pretty unpleasant pollutants. The workers are wearing face masks and we're just all developing runny noses and (even more) irritated attitudes. Their construction dust is a major air pollutant for our micro-environment.

Another set of contractors at work is building a new, totally unnecessary railing on the staircase right by my desk. These men are hammering, hollering, and, worst of all, dentist-drilling all day. Their bothersome noise distracts us from work and keeps us feeling unpleasant all day. Another pollutant.

Work another, more insidious, pollutant: people. Working in the entertainment industry is a serious far cry from my wholesome previous jobs as a tutor or even an employee in a convenience store. The office politics scenario is totally foreign to me and I managed to make some serious faux pas before I learned to hold my tongue -- even when some jerkbag stuck a huge box of recyclables in the garbage, not the recylcing bin right next to the garbage can. These office politics, more than any of the other, temporary pollutants, is the most irksome.

Even when we clean up our act in terms of tangible pollutants and leave behind the transigent noise and dust pollution, we'll still have damaging human run-off distressing our environments.
How do you deal with human-attitude waste?