Boiler Room: September 2011

It was a shitty job that brought me back to Chicago, but I did what I had to do. Even if that meant risking life and limb (and dress shoes) to prevent an outdated boiler from exploding every night. Digital Sony “Bloggie” HD camera, 9/16/2011.

I wanted to capture just how grimy and complicated this place was. Can you believe they stuck me–who they hired for a desk job–to wade into inch-deep runoff water and fix a dangerous, cranky old boiler every other night? And of course they made me wear dress shoes to the job since it was customer-facing at other times, then acted all surprised when I complained they were getting ruined by wading through water.

I hated this job so much. I won’t tell you which hotel it was in downtown Chicago, but it wasn’t an “Eastern” hotel. This place was infested with cockroaches and crime, with the police out all the time and exterminators not nearly enough. At one point the fire marshal showed up and threatened to shut the place down the very next day if they didn’t finally get around to installing sprinklers.

And they were all so incredibly rude to me on a personal level, too! This was the only job I ever walked out on without two weeks’ notice. They were lucky I didn’t treat them with the disrespect they gave me from day one.

Anyway–here’s the boiler room. Just the place where the night auditor should go, right?