An A for Effort, But an F for the Course
In Nashville, during my college years, I spent months in a dank, foul-smelling basement apartment with four (sometimes five, sometimes six, depending on who was drunk) other students. We were poor research assistants in the humanities. We lived off Whoppers and Pop Tarts. One of us was clever enough to live off a mix of Campbells' Condensed Corn Chowder and Cream of Chicken Soups.
This basement was so foul that one day a bat chased two friends of mine down a hallway. The damage - from both bat and human - was irreparable.
Not once did we consider hiring a maid service.
But two enterprising Harvard students have developed a program called DormAid, where college students who have the cash can hire maids to clean up after them.
The Harvard Crimson and the Daily Show have mopped up floors with DormAid, rightfully saying that the business was "creating yet another differential between the haves and have-nots on campus." (The Daily Show wasn't that eloquent - they asked about the Guatamalans doing the cleaning.)
In-Joke put it another way: "Another gentle reminder of who is being trained to own the Plantation and who is being paid minimum wage to keep it spotless."
The "cleaning professionals" wiping up after sloppy college kids are clearly losing out, but so are the students who hire DormAid.
A big part of the college experience is growing up and living on your own. In terms of hygeine, you learn how much filth you can tolerate. Eventually, you come to terms with your mess and you learn how to PICK UP AFTER YOUR SELF.
What if these affluent Harvard kids suddenly find themselves in a position in which they - gasp! - don't have money immediately at hand? What will they do without a maid?
They'll live. And they can test their chemistry skills by figuring out how to remove that mustard stain from the carpet.
And I don't like the idea of some people feeling that picking up after themselves is "beneath" them. It makes me see red. (That wasn't intended to be a Communist joke - really!) I worked minimum wage, and I cleaned up after truckers. You haven't known cleaning until you've cleaned up trucker bathrooms. No, it wasn't fun. But I can take care of myself, and I can appreciate a good strong disinfectant. And I learned that truckers, as a whole, are far more polite and tidy than the so-called "upper class."
I hope to write more about DormAid in the future. I e-mailed them for more information. I didn't give my opinion on the matter, but I did ask how much cleaning professionals made per hour, what percentage of the profit they took home, and if tipping was allowed or expected. If these budding CEOs find the time to write me back, I'll let you know!