hospital janitor here.
people routinely get caught doing insane , fire-able offenses, but nobody ever gets fired. getting black out drunk on the clock, leaving the work place to drink at the bar then come back and clock out, fucking in the building, watching youtube on their phone for hours rather than working, and so on. all those ended in no punishment or very weak ones (like sent home without pay for the day) so when someone does get fired, you know it's serious.
i guess because its a state, union job, this is why nobody gets in trouble or fired?
the first to go (since i started, anyhow), was Basement Bob. so named, because he was relegated to the basement after creeping out too many patients and families/visitors. there is lots of stuff on the basement level, but his area of responsibility was all places where patients wouldn't go. wood shop, machine shop, etc.
he was known for refusing to mop (he would be shown how to the right way, then when left to his own devices, would dip the mop in water, not wring it out, and just drag it on the floor behind him until the floor was covered in way too much water.
also known for covering his hands in an extremely powerful cleaning agent called Virex, which is dilluted for use in mopping and wiping down surfaces. he didn't dillute it before covering his hands. then he put rubber gloves on top, essentially locking in the moisture. so his hands were in terrible shape, they looked like zombie hands.
he was suddenly "asked to retire" for "letting someone into the morgue". no word got out about who he let in, or....why.
just forced to retire though.
another guy recently was fired. lots of equipment and supplies were going missing (floor wax, cleaning chemicals, all kinds of janitorial supplies, multi thousand dollar floor machines) and they eventually tracked it to this guy. he had been working at the hospital for 25 years while also running his own janitorial company on the side. they can't prove it, but the assumption is that he was running his company entirely off of supplies stolen from the hospital. so, total profit on any job he did.
getting sent to the inpatient psych ward is always terrifying. i haven't had to do much there, but there are stories of shit covered walls, and such.
anywhere in the hospital there might be a broken, overflowing toilets with sewage everywhere.
shit related calls are referred to as "code brown"s.
one guy i know was operating a wet vac to clean up the sewage, and something happened that resulted in the machine misfiring and basically spraying shit and piss all over a different employee's self (including face).
there was a guy who was lifting a biohazard bag up into a dumpster to dispose of it, and somehow the bag and inside container ripped open and the guy was completely drenched in blood. in his mouth and everything. had to finish his shift.
back to the psych ward, last time i went, there was a very , very large man making karate motions and punching one hand into the other open hand. he kept talking nonsense and asking where samuel l jackson was at. as hes punching and chopping the air he's progressing down the hall right past me just inches away.
coworker and i once were walking through the hallway late at night (i work nights) and it was pretty dead. we turn the corner and see a terrifying looking strung out dude , all disheveled, shoeless, wearing just an open backed gown, walk past and towards an elevator. we both look at each other like "....?!" , then turn around and look back to the intersection. we see a doctor run around the corner, literally look every directions except where the guy was, then look panicked and terrified. we pointed at the proper direction to look, and she thanked us then ran after him.
i guess individually, none of these things are that crazy, but all in all it's in insane place to work. been thinking about making a comic out of it. i love my crew, but there's lots of "characters" to say the least.