Cockroaches, facilities maintenance, and women's voices

Odd title? Perhaps, but I'll explain. Let me say, first, that I am by no means a feminist. "Equal rights" is not appealing to me. However, I do believe that a woman's voice should be heard and taken as seriously as a man's. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. I hate calling tech support and being made to feel like I'm stupid because my computer is having problems. I hate talking to police dispatch (this instance was the non-emergency number) and being expected to answer questions that should be part of their job in the first place. (For example: "I'm calling to report a homeless guy sleeping on the front lawn of my apartment building." "Is he breathing?" "How should I know???? I'm not going to get that close!!!! That's why I'm calling!!!!") Quite frankly, I'm tired of those people who just can't seem to take women seriously.

For those who have read my Facebook status updates in the last few weeks, you have probably noticed that we have had problems with cockroaches at work. After the first chat with the facilities people (another female coworker also called that day), it didn't sound overly promising, but they did at least say they would get exterminators in that Friday evening. Since it was a Thursday at that point, we figured we could live with that; it would hopefully spare us breathing too much of whatever they used to "fumigate." Mind you, this was mid-July; it was July 15 when the exterminators first came.

Monday morning, we could tell they had sprayed some areas. We had some papers that were wet (or had been, anyway), and there was residue on computer towers and keyboards. At least two of us could taste the residue, but it was mildly comforting thinking they had done something. Of course, it didn't stop us from seeing more bugs that week. And not a single one appeared to be dying. (The most disturbing thing about cockroaches is that they are fast. When you see one running across your desk, it's rather difficult to get yourself in a position to smash it until it has completely disappeared or hidden itself behind all your electronics, wires, etc., and you can't possibly get to it without making it run more.) It also doesn't help that the carpet on our floor isn't much different in color from the cockroaches. You won't see them on the floor unless you look while they're moving.

They also set glue boards around. Of course, we haven't caught a single roach in them. On the bright side, we also now know that we don't have mice. (Although the more I think about it, the more I think I would prefer mice to roaches. They don't reproduce as quickly, and they're more likely to stay on the ground.) In any case, we have still not seen a single roach anywhere near the glue boards. It was also after the first spraying that a coworker several rows away report a roach jumping into her yogurt that morning. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

We took extra precautions, as well. My boss always has chocolate on his desk, but we brought in containers and told him he has to keep it covered/sealed from now on. We threw out anything that may have been contaminated already and tried to be sure to seal anything else. I, for one, have not eaten at my desk in weeks, even though it often means eating alone in the cafeteria.

The following weekend, the exterminators came in again. I don't think they were quite as thorough, but we could definitely taste the residue again. We kept seeing roaches. We even gave them a couple of samples during the week of July 26-29, during which time various members of our team saw/killed more than one bug each day except Friday. Of course, it was Friday that facilities chose to talk to us, and they seemed positively thrilled that we had not seen a bug that day. Obviously, they weren't intending to do anything else... Most frustrating of all, they have been theorizing all along the way as to how the roaches got there, and they seem eager to blame someone. (But of course our theory that they came in with the new computers, whether in the machine or just in one of the boxes, couldn't possibly be true...)

That was the point where I decided to buy some bait myself. We set that out Monday, August 1. As with most roach bait, the idea is that they should get it on themselves and take it back to the nest to share, so it's hard to see whether it's actually working. However, a day or two later, I saw two roaches within 5 minutes of each other: one larger bug, looking out from under my desk, which I managed to knock to the floor with my can of forced air. Unfortunately, he got away. The second one started out on the floor; it was solely the movement that caught my eye, but I did manage to kill him. I contacted facilities again; this female coworker also called again when she found and killed one later that day. The response we both got was something along the lines of, "Thanks for letting us know. We don't understand why you're still seeing them." Ummmmm... okay. We don't either. But could you get rid of them? Because it's going to cost you a lot more if you have to fumigate or bug bomb the entire building... And it's really distracting and unproductive when you have to keep wondering when will be the next time that a cockroach jumps out at you.

This Monday was a week since we first set out the bait I bought. At least three or four large ones were seen that day, one of which got away. One was in the men's bathroom... not even in our area! (Even more disgusting, it jumped out of the paper towel dispenser when someone was going to dry his hands.) And at least one other was seen outside of our area last week. I did do some investigation on the bait I bought; apparently it takes roughly two weeks for it to be effective. Anyway...

After the sightings on Monday, my boss's boss (a male!) emailed the facilities manager about the problem, thinking that at least this way there would be some documentation. He sent off at least two emails that day, the second after the sighting in the bathroom. They promised to "spray" again. That has not been done. Today we noticed brown goop (for lack of a better description) that has been place in corners and cabinets here and there. Our best guess is that it's some kind of bait. Slightly comforting that they're finally doing something, but extremely frustrating that they didn't listen to the women who contacted them one month ago.

Then today, we were copied on an email from another man on our floor, informing the facilities manager that while the initial reports had been only from the northwest corner of the floor, the cockroaches had definitely spread to the center of the floor, there had been several sightings there, and was anything going to be done. We were also copied on the response: they plan to bug bomb.

Wait a minute, here! Seriously??? Why wasn't this done a month ago? Just because it was two women who contacted you doesn't make the roaches any less real or any less able to reproduce and spread! Okay, so it's true that we're more likely to scream and get jumpy. But we have been seeing cockroaches. Among our entire team, it has often been three or four a day--in the middle of the day. That is not normal behavior for cockroaches, unless there are a ton of them. So why weren't we taken seriously? Why did they have to wait for the men to start reporting it before they were willing to take real action?

Ultimately I'll be very grateful if they do finally follow through and eradicate the problem. But why were my complaints not taken seriously? Why were my female coworker's complaints not taken seriously? And why have we had to deal with the game of guessing where they came from, instead of facilities making certain the exterminators got rid of them? Why, why, why?