Sunday, May 20, 2018

Sarah McLachlan "Building A Mystery"

"ATTENTION: Please wear your Sunday best and keep your work areas clean. Visitors from corporate will be in the offices the rest of the week."

Although our radio station had a rather strict dress code (something unheard of in radio), a memo to run an iron over our khaki pants was commonplace when I first started in radio thanks to our very conservative corporate owners. Whenever they paid a visit to our radio stations, a note circulated. Although I didn't mind the dress code, many of my old-school radio colleagues rolled their eyes at it. Aside from wearing business casual clothes, I never understood the need for a reminder to keep our desks and work space clean...until someone clued me into the mystery pooper.

According to sources, someone at the office was going #2 on top of the toilet seat in the women's bathroom. Our bathrooms were locked, so you needed a key for access...meaning it had to be a current employee. It didn't happen every day or weekly, but it always seemed to happen whenever folks started to believe the poop storm had passed. The legend of who was responsible for this remained alive for a good handful of years when I worked there. Those same sources usually listed one or two suspects, yet no one knew for sure. What this says about an employee who goes to this length to express themselves was quite telling (and frightening). To this date, no one has ever correctly identified or admitted to being the mystery pooper. If it's anything like the story from New Jersey, it might have been someone from management.