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We can rarely see what people are up to when they think nobody is watching them. Yet, some professions have that luxury. Take high-rise window cleaners, for example: they can inadvertently snoop into people's offices as they work their squeegee magic, and nobody would ever know they saw anything.
Have you ever been curious about what exactly they see? Well, now is your chance to find out, because we've collected the most interesting and juicy answers from two online threads where netizens asked: "Skyscraper window cleaners, what is [the] most bizarre thing you've ever seen on the job?" So, if you like reading about other people's business, this might be just the one for you!
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#1
Once while cleaning a high rise apartment, an old lady kindly ask me if I was hungry and proceeded to open her window and hand me a pizza slice.
So I sat there, 27 stories up, tangling on my chair and eating pizza.
It was a good day.
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#2
My grandfather met my grandma while working as a window washer. He put his phone number right up against the glass of her office and hoped she wrote it down. She did and called and they’ve been married for 60 years.
Beak Hookage 4 hours ago
I saw an ad for a dating app once where a woman starts mutually flirting with the window cleaner and it's really sweet until her supervisor comes and puts a stop to it by closing the blind. The message of course was use our app to meet guys instead! Lame.
#3
Not me but my uncle has been doing it for years and had many weird encounters, but this one is kinda sad.
Having changed companies he started at this new apartment building. Near the top there was this old lady with a dog, the dog was young enough and was always excited to see him. Eventually he started talking to this woman when he was working through a small window, they became somewhat friends. Then one day almost a year on the job he went up and for the first time the apartment was empty except for the dog, which he found odd, so when he was finished up he tried to check and see if she was in but got no reply. A day later a member of staff from the apartment block ( I think it was the landlord but can’t remember) got back to him and told him that she passed away, and that she had no family. Assuming that my uncle knew her the landlord asked about the dog, seeing if there was anything that could be done. My uncle being the kind fella he was, took the dog.
Nearly ten years later my uncle still has the dog, a little terrier name Pumpkin.
Edit: For those that asked for a picture of the dog, this is a recent enough one. Dog Tax - Here is Pumpkin.
#4
My uncle has been doing this job over 20 years so I’ve had a few weird stories off him
- a sign on a window asking them to not clean the bathroom window. Obviously not knowing which window was to what room they went about their jobs. The bathroom had skinned rabbits hung up.
- a hoarder who’s windows were slowly being hidden by the years of “collections”
- a famous footballer who was NOT with his wife - not long after this the company were asked to sign NDA’s.
His favourite?
- a dog breeder (Okay breeder not the right word, someone who had 2 litters) and every 4 weeks he went back to clean the building and got to see the pups growing up. When he went back and they were roughly 12 weeks there was one pup left. He asked for her and now he’s got a rottie called Holly.
Edit - dog tax - meet Holly
okay guys heres a couple more pics of Holly
The footballer was Rooney. He was doing it while his wife was pregnant.
#5
Ive been a rope access window cleaner for a couple years and have seen my fair share of weirdness. A couple incidents that stick out are:
- a young couple having fun that invited me to join
- an apartment in a ritzy building completely empty other than a table with several sheets of freshly printed, uncut $100 bills
- a real mummy sarcophagus
Animals were always my favorite though. Cats and puppies lose their minds seeing you outside their window and will happily chase your mop and squeegee while you work. Always brightened the day.
Edit: another memorable moment was causing a mild panic in the dining room of a local retirement home dementia ward. We felt bad and went as quickly as we could, but the nurses laughing as they tried to contain the pandemonium made us feel slightly better.
#6
Not as exciting as the other stories but something I’m blown away by when I’m on ropes is how many people feel guilty about not working when I’m around. When you look into peoples work stations you can see that almost no one works, most people are on Facebook, YouTube or on news sites. But the second the notice me outside the window they quickly switch to an excel spreadsheet.
Like they think I’m some kind of productivity spy about to rat them out to management. Keep cruising the internet people, don’t mind me!
And also, pointing to the window and saying “you missed a spot”, isn’t funny.
AtMostAFabulist 5 hours ago
When the guys come by to clean the windows on my floor, we all stop to watch them.
#7
I was cleaning windows for this old couple in the apt building where I worked.
He’s telling us how great is it when we come every spring. He loves when all the windows are out at once, it opens up the whole apt, the air flow, bla bla bla...
And, not that we don’t do a great job, but these windows are old and no matter how good we clean... there’s nothing quite like *nothing* between you and the outside.
And then he went to stick his head out to look down and squarely smacked his full face into the clean window.
#8
Friend was fresh out of the shower sitting at her computer desk undressed when the window cleaners were at her place. She heard a noise so she turned around to see two men outside her third story window. So she screams and runs into the bathroom to hide. Later she calls the building management to complain and they tell her that a notice went out and she must not have seen it.
Then building management decided to ask the window cleaning service to send those guys to her apartment to knock on the door and apologize to her. Hilariously awkward.
#9
Not a skyscraper cleaner, but the person on the other side of the window. I was using a single occupancy restroom on the 22nd floor of a building that had a floor-to-ceiling glass window along the side of the toilet. Weird, I know. Anyways I was wearing a romper, so sitting there in just a bra, with my romper around my ankles. I saw the window washer and was a little startled but thought the windows were tinted it was fine. Alas, we accidentally made eye contact as I was standing up to wipe. Clearly tinting does not work up close.
#10
What I got was a LOT of flirting. I don't know if the pane of glass gave them a sense of safety, or if lots of office chicks are just bored, or if our red overalls were particularly fetching but something brought out the bachelorette instinct, notes pressed against the glass, pretend lesbian performances, you name it. Only seemed to happen when there was a group of ladies though.
#11
Not a skyscraper window washer but was a janitor who had to wash the windows in a 6 story building as part of my job so i used a mix of ladders and rappelling down from the roof with a harness to clean the outside windows. One day i was washing the outside windows on the executive floor where all the bosses and higher up employees had their offices. I was done with one window so i moved to the next window and looked in and saw the ceo of the company snorting something in his office with the door locked and the lights off. He looked up and saw me in the window and we made an uncomfortable eye contact for about 15 seconds then i just pretended i saw nothing and kept washing the windows. Never spoke a word about it to him or anyone in the office but the last day i worked there he gave me a farewell card with 200 bucks in it and a free solar powered portable phone charger that the company produced and sold.
#12
It was a normal morning and I had just began cleaning windows. I'm cleaning one with the blind down not really paying attention. I realise that the blind is slowly rising and when it finishes opening I see him. Cricket legend Brett Lee doing yoga. Will never forget that day.
#13
I was visiting my grandparents in a high rise, looking out their windows a few stories up. As the window cleaners went by, I happily watched them clean, hands folded behind my back, because the windows were a one way type thing where they were basically mirrors from the outside in.
I knew this because I’d seen the building from the outside. Unbeknownst to me, the level of reflectivity changes pretty drastically depending on the time of day, and I realized that when the window cleaners were going by, they had to wash the windows while some weirdo (me) stood about 12 inches from the window watching their form.
#14
Well. I was washing the outside of the windows at the group home I work at (state was coming by later that week and I was super bored)
I walk up to one of my dudes bedroom windows to wash it off and apparently he hears me outside somehow even though he had his radio turned up to about nine thousand, like he always does.
He rips up his blinds, totes bare, and starts slapping himself repeatedly in the forehead and screaming.
This was pretty normal for him, but it's definitely the strangest thing I've ever seen so far in my life while washing a window.
#15
Not a window cleaner, but my therapist and I meet at her office in a skyrise, and we've begun this weird tradition of stopping everything we're doing, even if I'm like in the middle of crying or something, and just smile these huge creepy smiles while trying not to blink as the guy washes the windows.
He loses it and starts laughing before he gets to the end every time, and then waves bye at us and we resume whatever it is we were talking about.
#16
It wasn't a highrise, but used to be a residential window washer, and sometimes clients would want the inside cleaned in addition to the outside.
First worse was a morbidly obese man who was living at home, I believe on hospice care, but definitely at least with a full time nurse. The man chain smoked inside his house non-stop. When we cleaned the inside the water was yellow coming off the glass.
#17
When I used to a work as a window cleaner for a building in West Hollywood, I would often see lots of famous people in the building, not mega famous people, but kinda well known actors and such. One day I was just cleaning the window as normal. This particular window had the blinds down, while I was cleaning, one side of the blinds broke down and I saw a celebrity licking his dogs junk. I can’t erase the image :(.
#18
This is more on the sad side: We clean senior homes and in the dementia ward there was a woman that was asking me why they turned the volume down in the room because she couldn’t hear me. She went on for awhile about that and how she disapproves of it. Eventually she started calling me Brian and said “Brian it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, you never come visit.” I’ve got to say that was both the weirdest and most saddening thing I have seen.
#19
Not a window cleaner, but there was one time the people cleaned the windows of the office where I worked very early in the morning when no one was expecting it. The squeegee or brush thing hit the glass really loudly and everyone jumped, I half fell off my chair and one person spilled her coffee. I'm sure the guy was amused.
#20
When i was a cleaner there was a old lady who had me do her windows. In the corner of the windiw on her third floor was this massive tarantula that was completely loose and just chillin. When I told her about it she said her nephew was "supposed to fix her spider issue".
#21
I am a window cleaner, but not high rise. The thing I can never understand is when I see lip prints where people have “kissed” the glass in public buildings. People if you saw what I clean off of those every week you would never touch the glass, especially not with your lips.
Edit: since a lot of people are asking when the glass is super dirty it’s usually grease, old condiments, bird poop, salt from the sidewalks (winter in Colorado). And a lot of the time I can’t even tell what it is I just know looks and smells bad.
#22
My uncle is a former window cleaner and he said his most memorable moments were when he lived and worked in Rotorua, which at the time was the crime capital of New Zealand.
The most bizarre was when he saw some naked guy, obviously high on something, getting Benny hill chased up and down a street by the police.
The second most bizarre was when he heard a crash, followed by a van tire bouncing down the street that was being chased by a massive Maori guy who proceeded to throw the tire over his shoulder and wander off whistling as if nothing had happened.
#23
I used to live in a high rise condo. Sometimes the window cleaners go up the side of the building where my small bathroom window is. One Saturday morning after a crazy night out, I opened up the window and sat down *on my toilet*, hungover, with my eyes closed thinking about where I went wrong in my life choices that lead me to this moment. Then I hear my window close. Apparently the window cleaner needed to close it to go up higher. Cue the slow ascent of their window elevator thing, they saw me destroying my toilet. We made eye contact and I gave him the universal “nod” of understanding. He gave me one back and continued his slow ascent upwards at like an inch a second.
#24
When I was in hospital in labour with my daughter, I look up from lying over the bed, massive belly, moaning and what do I see? A window washer!
The funniest thing was that the windows were reflective and he clearly couldn't see me, or if he could he was a world champion poker player...he had no idea he was 3 feet away from a groaning elephant like naked lady.
Despite the pain I laughed.
StrangeOne 3 hours ago
Those window washers for hospitals must have strict rules to not engage, react, or appear interested in anything they see in a window, or the windows are heavily tinted.
#25
Not a window cleaner but had a funny experience. While consulting at a ad agency in NY. they gave me a sweet office to use on the 25th floor for the 6 months I was there. I had just come back from a 3 martini lunch with some of the execs and the client. I'm sitting in my aeron chair trying to fight the food coma and 3 martinis I decided to lean back, un buckle my pants and loosen up my belt. My desk is at a 45 degree angle facing away from the exterior windows. After getting into the most lazy and comfortable position in the Aeron chair I swivel towards the window and see two window washers smiling and laughing. One guy wrote on a notepad "I'll have what you had, where did you go" we had a back and forth conversation for a few minutes by writing messages on note pads.
The CCO knocks on my office door, I had completely forgotten about our scheduled meeting. He comes in and sees me, belt and pants unbuckled with the two window washers and just mutters "am I interrupting anything". I explain the whole thing to him and the window washers are laughing the entire time. They see him laughing and write "all cool"? Them the CCO proceeds to pickup a sharpie and notepad to join in. Everyone was having such a great time he invited the window washers to lunch on us.
#26
Dropped in a dude throwing kitchen knives at a dart board in a undersized pink robe. Skipped that window.
#27
My medical school is 8 floors. There would be huge spiders outside every window. We were in small group, and kept hearing this loud smack that we couldn’t figure out what it was. The window washer came into view, and he obviously was not a huge spider fan and was smacking all of them. Easily 30 large spiders on each window.
#28
Used to work on cell phone towers on the prairies. Got to the top of a ~250ft tower once and started to find holes in the metal. I look into the distance and saw a shooting range nearby, they were bullet holes. There were people on the range at the time so I got the F outta there pretty fast.
#29
Once I was doing this two story house, with big square plates of glass pretty much everywhere. The guy had every single painting on his walls covered with sheets, and absolutely would not allow us inside to get to the double hungs on the second floor.
#30
One time in college I answered a help wanted ad for a window cleaner. I thought it was going to be one of these high rise jobs. Instead when I showed up the interview it was some methy looking guy in a parking lot. I spent the day with him going from house to house cleaning people's windows. He told me to pretend I was his nephew and he kept introducing me to customers that way. He chewed tobacco and while driving would spit the juice between his legs onto the floor of his ratty truck. Then at the end of the day he told me it was just an audition and tried not to pay me. One of the strangest days of my life.
#31
Not what I saw but who saw me. I had just come back from maternity leave and needed to pump. My supervisor offered up her office. I didn't even think about closing the blinds bc we were on the 22nd floor. I was sitting on the floor bc I needed to be close to an outlet. I was just about finished when I noticed cables moving outside the window and saw the top of a man's head. Anyone whose needed to pump knows how important getting every last drop of that milk is. I didn't know what to do so I stood up and faced the opposite wall trying to get my bra up and deal with two bottles of milk! I never turned around. I was so embarrassed I unhooked my pump and put my top back on and capped my breast milk. I got everything cleaned up without turning around so I have no idea what this person looked like or how they responded to seeing me trying to get dressed, get my pump dealt with and not spill any milk!
#32
There was this house I use to clean, front and back windows. Anyway they had an extension built on the side of their house and didn’t want us climbing on the roof to get to the back in case we crack any of their tiles. The lady who lives there, must of been in her thirties, asked if it would be possible to carry the ladder through the house and into the back the next time hers was due to be cleaned. I agree.
Two weeks later I knock on after cleaning her front windows and she answers in nothing but a towel and she tells me that she was just about get in shower. I ask if she wants me leave until next time, but she says no come through.
So I awkwardly begin manoeuvring my ladder through and manage make it into the kitchen, as I’m standing it becomes apparently obvious that her kitchen layout is to small for me to get the ladder through to the back door but she begins trying to help me. Which results in, what I’m sure you’re expecting, her towel dropping.
She catches it in the nick of time before anything below the waist is revealed, to her credit it was good reflexes.
#33
Not a skyscaper window cleaner, but I can speak on behalf of one who was there when someone in my dad's office accidentally let a bouncy ball hit the window and then proceed to walk into the window when he got up and reached for it, right when the cleaner was there.
#34
I had a friend and she worked as a cleaner when she was ~15, 16...she saw her classmate making out with her barbie doll...
#35
I worked at subway a while back, and for some reason windows were just my duty, and I'm almost 100% certain I was the only one that ever actually cleaned them. Anyway...
Windows of our store over looked a busy intersection. Saw a dude speed through a red light while cars were still going through and miraculously there was no accident. A LOT of honking and people slamming their breaks, though.
#36
I used to be the janitor at a busy McDonalds next to a university campus a while back. Early in the morning I usually cleaned the windows outside before the drive through started to get too busy.
Usually saw some fairly strange people, but one that stuck out was a very unkempt and definitely hungover man foraging for cigarette butts in the trash, and on the pavement.
After he gathered a handful, he sat on the curb nearby, crushed the tiny bits of old stale tobacco out of the butts into a rolling paper, which he then licked, rolled, and then asked me if I had a light.
If I hadn't already quit smoking before then, that encounter would have made me do it.
#37
Window cleaner here. I was up on a ladder doing an older single woman’s house and happened to be at her bedroom window. She was in the process of getting out of the shower and was fully naked and bent over putting on her under wear and just happened to turn around to find me washing the window. ( I may add this woman was in her early 50s and extremely good looking for a 50 something year old woman.) anyways, she turns around and stood up and I then saw her breast which were fake but very nice lol. She didn’t freak out but closed her blinds and when I finished the job I knocked on the door to give her the bill and all she said to me was “ I hope you enjoyed what you saw” with a little devious smile. To which I replied yes mam, thank you very much and took the check and went on my way. I do her house every six months now and we know each other on a first name basis lol.
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