I work in a fairly typical cube-farm IT environment. One morning, as per my daily custom, I got up to drop my daily stack dump. I worked on the first floor and the *only* men's room was on the second floor. So up I went. Everything went over and out fairly normally, so I went back to my happy little cube and returned to work on a tech support call from a particularly loquacious lady who needed some help. That job required me to go over to our centrally-located workstation, where we could take over a computer remotely. I fixed whatever was wrong pretty quick and was drooling while she chattered on when, all of a sudden, I detected a faint but distinct odor. But I couldn't place it quite yet.
Well, Chatty Kathy was in fine form and continued to motor on. I smelled it again, but this time I placed the scent. Very distinctly, I thought, "I smell POO!!!"
So I did a quick visual inspection of my hands, which would be the most likely culprits. Clean as the proverbial whistle. I figured it was my imagination as Kathy rattled on. Then, a moment later, I smelled that faintly nutty aroma again, this time just a bit stronger.
I began to panic and wished to hell my customer would shut the hell up already so I could jet outta there and do a proper inspection.
She finally did. I marched up that flight of steps with alacrity and purpose. Thank the Gods that the men's room was deserted -- all three stalls and urinals were empty. Not even an errant hand-washer to be seen. So I locked myself in the first stall -- "my office," as I called it. And the much-anticipated inspection proceeded.
I double-checked my hands. Clean. I patted down my shirt, pants, and shoes. No poo. I checked myself over again just to be on the safe side. I felt a little bewildered. I was about to return to the Collective when I idly ran my hand over the back of my shirt.
Holy shit. Holy shit, indeed. I felt a nice spot of something squishy. I drew back my hand and sure enough, I had a fresh, stanky skidmark across my previously-pristine hand.
Panic set in. I calculated my options. I realized I needed to assess the damage, so I began to strip off my short-sleeved button-down shirt. There was a perfect circle of poo on my mid-back area. "How the hell did that get there?" I thought in an ever-escalating panic. I had the idea to also check my pants... just in case.
And wouldn't you know it... more poo.
There was poo smeared on my waistband, my belt, and even on the rim of the underwear elastic band. I nearly swooned at the sight of it, but I remained frosty. I knew I had to do what I could to clean up, and then I could figure out my next move.
I dashed out of the stall -- thank the Maker no one came in right then -- to grab a massive handful of wet and dry paper towels. After much toilet dunking, scrubbing, and cursing, I managed to get like 98% of the visible poo off.
But I was soaked.
In toilet water.
Then it hit me like a meteor: MY CHAIR!!!!!!!!!!!
After drying as best as I could, I got dressed and made a very quiet and hyper-nervous dash back to my department. Normally my department is fairly noisy and busy, with lots of people walking around observing every little thing that goes down to gather ammo for jokes and jeers. But no one saw me. No one!! The Gods were indeed smiling on me in some way, and for that silver lining I will be eternally grateful.
But I digress. As soon as I walked into my cube, I saw it: a perfectly-circular spot of poo right in the middle of the back of my office chair. I was in damage control mode again, a helluva lot sooner than I though I would be.
Then I had another panicked thought. "Holy shit, what about the other chair?" The other chair being the one at the other remote control workstation. I decided that "first thing's first" was a good plan, so I took stock of the scene. I had a nearly-full cup of water and a decent stack of napkins in my drawer. So I dabbed/scrubbed most of the poo off my chair without being spotted.
Then I casually walked over to the other workstation and sure enough: a nice poo spot on the shabby old baby blue chair. I had the brilliant idea to quickly wheel the chair into the inside of my cube and pray no one caught on to what I was doing.
I managed to get most of the poo off... but not the stain. Still, once again, no one was the wiser. I pushed the chair back, plopped down, and experienced the biggest adrenaline crash -- complete with cold sweats -- that I've ever known.
At that moment, I knew I was done for the day. I needed to go home and change, and I had no intention on coming back that day. So what if no one knew?? I knew. So I gathered my stuff and marched to my manager's office. I walked in and announced, "Pam I'm sick. I gotta go." And her exact words -- I swear to Christ: "You look flushed."
I headed out to the car, careful not to even lean back on the seat of my brand new Civic Hybrid as I drove. I got home, stripped butt-ass naked in front of the washer, and threw my entire daily wardrobe in for a much needed cleansing.
No one at work ever found out.
Postscript: I worked the night shift by myself a few days later. I scrubbed down both chairs with actual soap and water.