Cleanliness and Kindness
I work in a what you might call a fancy around 30-storey building in the city centre. You would expect smart, educated, courteous people to work here. By and large they are but there is one aspect I find totally lacking amongst the people who work here (or at least, those that work on the same floor as me): washroom etiquette. I’m sure it doesn’t apply to everyone on my floor but there are enough of them that cause real distress and inconvenience.
I will not go into the details here but suffice to say I would always have to brace myself for the worst whenever I open a cubicle door. I am a person who has to often use the washroom and thus appreciate the work of the washroom cleaner who comes and cleans it several times a day. She always has a friendly smile and I reciprocated. Pretty soon, we would often have small chats whenever we meet in the washroom. I will call her Sara (not her real name).
I learned that Sara is responsible for the cleanliness of the men’s washroom on our floor as well, and the women’s and men’s washroom on another floor in our office building. If you count each washroom separately, that would mean she is in charge of four washrooms. Based on the cleaning schedule pasted on the wall of the washroom I used, I see that she needs to clean it four times in a day. So, four times four equals to sixteen. That’s sixteen times in one day she needs to clean the washroom. Sure, after the first cleaning, the subsequent cleaning may not take as long. Still, that’s a lot of cleaning in one day.
From my observation, Sara is hardworking and she does a good job. Unfortunately, the hard work she puts in is sometimes not reflected due to the lack of the washroom etiquette of the people working at my floor. We used to have individual toilet paper roll in each cubicle but after people kept throwing used toilet papers on top of the bins for sanitary pads, the individual toilet papers were taken out and now everyone has to take toilet paper from the main one outside the washroom. After this was done, some people would take a toilet paper roll from the adjacent store room and then leave it in the cubicle. I understand why people do this due to the inconvenience caused by this new arrangement but the people kinda brought it upon themselves. I was annoyed with it too but what else could we do? Anyways, there are always consequences and most of the time, for Sara. She told me the management would blame her for every toilet paper roll found in the cubicle. After that, whenever I found any toilet paper roll inside the cubicle, I would return it to the store room.
That was one out of several other complaints Sara had to deal with. She often lamented to me that when the washroom was smelly or dirty, people would complain and she would get blamed for it. I found that extremely and utterly unfair. If the cleaning staff is already cleaning the office washroom four times a day and it is still dirty, that’s on you office workers who do not have washroom etiquette, not on the cleaning staff. People need to take responsibility and not complain each time the washroom is dirty. They also need to realise that being complain-happy affects someone else and has consequences. Make sure it is justified before making a complaint.
Our cleaning staff are already working hard to ensure we have a clean, pleasant washroom but they should’t have to work as hard as they do now. In some developed countries, the office washroom is cleaned only once a week. Once a week! Imagine that. Our office washrooms wouldn’t even last a day without a cleaning staff.
Recently, Sara told me she had resigned. She told me her body was sore from all the work. What she did not say, however, spoke volumes. She works in a job with no recognition and is often getting blamed for things beyond her control. On her last day, I gave her a gift of appreciation and told her how much I valued her work and my wish that she finds a better job after this.
People need to be more appreciative of the work of the people who keep our public washrooms, buildings, roads and so on, clean. To show appreciation to the women and men who keeps our city clean, you don’t have to get them a gift, although a smile or two never did hurt anyone. It’s simple, you just need to pick up after yourself. You are an adult, not a child. In fact, even children know how to clean up after themselves. People say they value cleanliness but that is not what I see.
Just because there is someone in charge of keeping a certain place or facility clean, it doesn’t give you the right to be a total jerk and make a mess of the place. This is a message that has been said time and time again and it is getting depressing that this kind of reminder still has to be said. Come on, people!
