Rexburg is a college town with a noticeable lack of a night life. With a midnight curfew, campus is usually completely empty not long after dark. But if you happened to stay up long enough, each building is soon filled with a group of students that are charged with making the campus a little better each day.
Katie Richards, a second semester freshman studying exercise science, decided about a month and a half ago to become an early morning janitor.
"It was during the middle of the semester, and classes were really easy at the time," Katie says, "Well I wasn't really considering 4 AM, but I had some extra time to make some cash. And I thought I could squeeze in some naps during the day, so this seemed alright."
Here at BYU-Idaho on a normal semester there are about 320 students who wake up every day at 3:30 in the morning to clean every building on campus. That is 1 in every 40 people you pass in the hallways. Compared to other campus jobs it does pay a little better, starting at $8 an hour. That's about 30 cents more than most campus positions.
Katie told me, "The will to get up in the morning to clean toilets isn't very exciting. But, think about the paycheck, and I guess it's alright."
But even with the slightly higher paycheck, most students get burned out in just a few weeks. Working at 4 in the morning and trying to keep up with school work and campus life can put a toll on a student unless they budget time wisely and develop an early sleep schedule.
Malissa Martinez, a former early morning custodian commented, "Even though I didn't always go to bed early. It was kind of a thing where I couldn't fully socialize because even if I was there I wasn't fully awake or I wasn't fully there mentally so it just didn't make parties very fun."
Katie agreed, "It's made me really focus on my time and organize it better so I can take naps. It's not good.
"You have to go to bed early. You have to miss out on.. okay there's country dancing and swing dancing at nights, and there's other fun activities that go on here at night. But I have to play my game smart and go to bed early and miss out on those so, but it's also helped me organize things very well: getting my homework done; putting my complete focus on my homework because I know I only have a specific amount of time."
"Dear God I hate getting up early in the morning. With a passion," said Trent Evans, a coworker of Katie's. "I would be showing more passion right now but I'm kind of tired. I was up early this morning. It's changed me into a zombie."
The most common sentiment among custodians I talked to is that the work has made them more aware, and more appreciative of the cleanliness on campus.
Katie said, "It's made me appreciate how I treat other buildings. I know someone else is going to have to clean up my mess. I try to think about that the next time I use the bathroom: Who's going to be cleaning this up?"
Malissa echoed the same, "I think that people who have never done it, or people who've done it for two weeks, I think the gain a greater appreciation for sacrifices that people make."
But Trent told me, "Maybe I'll be the opposite. Maybe I'll be the guy who will go in a be like, 'You know what, these idiots trashed my building, I'm going to trash theirs.' ...Just like, spread it around. ...That wouldn't be nice at all. I don't think I'll do that..
In striking contrast to the early morning, the Snow building during the day is bright, bustling and full of people; most of them unaware of what goes on in the Snow building before the doors officially open.
If for some reason you're interested in a job in early morning custodial, you can apply in person in the Physical Plant building. But if you aren't, you can join us in being glad that some students still are.
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The Janitorby slaneart1,126 views
I did this for three years and maybe one of the few that enjoyed it. In the Joseph Fielding Smith Building.
jetpyro 1 month ago
Well done! Thanks for sharing!
yollaster 4 months ago
you could say thats a "shit" job. lol. fucking failures.
hurleyrox2012 1 year ago