Reading the comments on another blog recently (the blog of the world's most dastardly lurker) I was reminded of a thing that always drove me crazy. No matter where I was, in the locker room of every OR and surgical center in which I've worked, there were guys who left their scrub clothes and towels on the floor. And their caps and shoe covers, often within an arm's reach of the receptacles into which they could easily be placed. Moreover, whereas I never risked the perversion-alert of hanging around long enough to check, I'd be willing to bet my (admittedly depreciated) left nut it was exclusively the surgeons -- as opposed to the various techs and nurses -- who behaved that way. It annoyed the hell out of me. Embarrassed me. I actually went around picking all the stuff up and putting it in the hampers, because I hated to imagine the housekeepers having to do it, surely thinking what a bunch of spoiled assholes those doctors were -- and including me in their scorn. I always wondered if they left their clothes on the floor at home as well. Based on the doctors' wives I knew, I doubted it, although a few were on their second or third. So who knows? [Disclosure: I collect a pile of socks near my bed. But when it's big enough, I wash them myself.]
One time I left a note on the bulletin board in the main locker room: Unless your mother or wife is expected soon, pick up your own goddamn scrubs. Until the sign disappeared, things looked a little better.
