Thanks the gods for NPR. They’re the only news source so far that has bothered to talk to hotel workers. Pundits and talking heads can spout nonsense about the normal routine of workers who are invisible to them, except to serve. NPR opened the phone lines and just asked the workers directly…

Although most people’s ideas of a hotel housekeeper might come from the movies like the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, the reality is a lot more grueling. Most hotels in New York are unionized and housekeepers make between $15 and $20 an hour. But according to Reneta McCarthy, a senior lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, it’s a very physical job. Housekeepers might do 14 to 18 rooms a day, spending about 25 minutes per room.

“Typically,” she says, “the sheets the housekeepers are dealing with are not fitted sheets, so they have to pick up the mattress, and tuck them under, and tuck blankets. Those king size mattress are heavy; the queen size mattresses are heavy; they are vacuuming every room; they are scrubbing tubs, toilets, cleaning the bathroom floor.”

When McCarthy would interview applicants, she would tell them the job was pretty much the equivalent of working a construction job.

McCarthy believes sexual harassment is much less prevalent than most people suspect.

Sexual harassment is the sexy issue of course. Most news outlets don’t waste much time on work, and worker’s opinions. It’s worth saying that motel cleaning is not a job where you are supposed to assume you will be disrespected– it’s not in the job description.

A lot of foolishness has been spread around by opinionators, and commenters who are blaming the victim for not taking an escort, or maybe a guard dog, when she went into the room to clean it. She will tell her story to a Grand Jury, and a decision is expected by Friday. Lawyers for the prosecution say they have a case.