Sometimes I wonder if people at work – my work, your work, any work – do or don’t do things because they know other people are near. Like wash their hands after they go to the bathroom. Or not scrub their plates and silverware, caked with dried food an hour after they’ve finished lunch. Or feeling free to pass gas in the hallway or stairway when they think no one else is around. Picking their nose. Scratching an itch in places no one talks about at work. Digging out earwax and smelling it, just to see what it smells like.

I don’t know. We’re animals, and we have bodies that require maintenance. I just wonder how much of that maintenance happens only when we feel safe, like we won’t be judged by those we see and make nice with every day.