Some people's full time job is to wash windows.
They saddle themselves in, get pulled up by a cable, and wash the windows on impossibly tall buildings, and gain a fly-on-the-wall view of various walks of life.
The corporate world, birthday parties, anything else you could imagine-the possibilities are endless.
u/Noah19or22 asked:
Window washers of reddit: what is the most memorable thing you have seen while on the job?
Here were some of the answers.
Soldiering On
Good friend is a window washer for downtown office towers. They get notice of the day the windows are being washed, yet he says it's shocking how many people are freaked out by them being outside their window.
Weirdest though? They came across a dude watching porn on his office computer, when he noticed the window washers, he just gave them a big thumbs up and kept watching.
I've Seen....Things
I work for a private estate in the local polo club. I was under the impression that the owners were not home at the time, but I was wrong. I was washing windows this particular morning and I came around to the restroom window and got an a prefect view of this older couple in the shower together (the window looked out on a private fenced in patio, so that's why it wasn't fogged glass. The window by the toilet is the same way. Bad design in my opinion.)
I've never moved faster in my life than I did catapulting myself backwards out of view of this naked couple. I don't believe they saw me because the next time we ran into each other, everything seemed normal from their end haha.
Too Close For Comfort
Housekeeper checking in. This one lady liked to feed birds, like 50lbs every two weeks. No screens, sills caked in filth and the windows themselves had been neglected over time. They were Anderson windows so you could pull them in from the inside. Well the tension string broke and I'm literally holding the window by a string and this bird straight up flies into my face. I was shocked, the bird was shocked, I screamed, I like to imagine the bird did too. Bird flew away and I got the window locked back in place and called maintenance. This was on the second floor too.
Blowin' On Through
A tornado.
We'd had little warning before we saw it about 1 kilometre away. It didn't appear to be moving side to side much, which indicates that it's coming towards you. We winched down about 4 floors, jumped onto a fire escape and got inside the building. Rode out the storm inside and then went home.
Absolutely Chuffed
Not my story but my brothers.
A very famous female comedian in my country had a house in our area and in her bedroom above the bed was a life-size "paint me like one of your French girls" oil painting of her starkers. He nearly fell off the ladder in surprise and she was stood at the bottom wetting herself laughing cause she knew what was coming
We Know More About You Than We Care To
I used to window clean hotels, which meant going room to room with a master key to let myself in. I've seen quite a few sex toys being proudly displayed on bedside tables, but the one situation that stuck with me the longest was just walking down the corridor and hearing two middle aged people going at it in one of the rooms, it was a Georgian hotel in the Cotswolds so very echoey, their screams were getting louder and louder and people were actually coming out of their rooms because it was so audible, all the housekeepers at the end of the corridor were doubled over laughing. That couple had no idea how intimately they shared their experience with us.
Civil Servants
Window cleaner for over 12 years now. I've seen horrible things. Also hilarious things. Once helped catch a pair of yobs who were on the run from the police, was just minding my own business cleaning a customer's windows when the fence panels behind us in the garden exploded. Like it started raining splintered wood and dirt! Some scum had nicked a car and cornered way too fast, they shot the corner jumped the curb and obliterated the garden and the nicely parked up BMW in the drive. Both nobheads ran immediately and hopped the gardens and in seconds out of nowhere there's a helicopter circling and k9 units on them both. They were flat face down on the pavement in a matter of moments, big burly coppers pinning them down.
Seen plenty of big double ended toys, strap one etc left out on the beds of undiscerning customers. Lots of naked old dudes and people who were in the shower not knowing we were there only to scream. It's a good laugh as a job really, folk are always alright and it's nice to have a cuppa on the job and a biscuit.
We Done Scared Each Other
Not a window washer, but I was the victim.
It's a Saturday morning and I wanted to have a nice lie in. My headboard for my bed is up against the window so I sleep facing away from the window and have to turn around to see what is outside/to open the curtains. On this fateful day, I woke up to some sound but it wasn't alarming so I just carried on as usual, stretched, then turned around to open my curtains.
Then I see his face. The window cleaner clearly didn't expect me to open the curtains and got a little scared. I too didn't expect to see someone's face looking back at me through the window, early on a Saturday morning. He saw me almost fall off my bed in sheer terror. Paying him at the door when he was done, was funny. We both laughed and pretended it didn't happen.
A Little Bit Of A Brighter Day
Not a window washer, but I saw a window washer dressed up like Batman while cleaning the windows of the cancer ward in the hospital (grandmother had cancer). The child cancer center was through a different door on the same hall as the elderly (60+) cancer center. I was 9 at the time and thought it was awesome, cheered me up for a while.
Documentary View
This was 25yrs ago. Cleaning 2nd floor windows in a hospital from ladders. I arrived at a window to see a lady giving birth. The child was probably half in and half out is as best as I can describe it. The people in the room were so concentrated on what they were doing they didn't notice me so I made a hasty descent.
A couple of windows further down (same floor) I see a man pacing up and down with his hands behind his back. Dark hair, tidy mustache, around 30. Will never forget his face. No idea why he wasn't in with his partner but I had no doubt this was the father.
Skip down a few windows (3 mins per window including moving the ladder so not that long) and I arrive at a window to see the lady being wheeled in on a wheelchair with the baby in her arms, the other mothers (maternity ward) clapping, and the father walking behind with a huge beaming smile.
It felt like it was out of a movie with a camera following the story. Quite unforgettable.
