When I was in grade school back in Minneapolis, we kids were told explicitly to call them engineers, not janitors, and it’s stuck with me for the last sixty years.
Custodians I’ve always associated with places like churches and cemeteries/graveyards.
Until his dying day, my father refused to call a janitor/custodian/sanitation engineer an engineer because Dad’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees are for engineering.
Another true story, from when I was a historic site guide:
The fort’s sutler brings a long iron rod to the squaddie working in the blacksmith’s shop and asks him to cut off about a foot of it. The squaddie clamps the rod in a vise and starts sawing away in the middle.
SUTLER: Why are you cutting the piece out of the middle instead of off the end? SQUADDIE: Well, shucks, Captain. You only need a little one…
Brings to mind George W. Bush’s reply when asked about having used drugs: “When I was young and foolish, I was young and foolish.”
With a quick pause, it sounds like the first part is leading up to excuse-making, is laying a little go-easy-on-me groundwork for what’s coming up next — but nothing else is coming up next; the second part is just the first part.