Cleaners Clean Your Shit!!!
Have you ever wondered how it works in a cleaning business environment to have a cleaning job and make a living through this way? Let’s have a look at it and learn more so we can expand our perceptions towards this hard business.
By Esra Oziskender, oziskender.esra@gmail.com, Social Media: @esraoziskender, YouTube; @hrlinkconsulting
Cleaners Clean Your Shit!
I was assisting a very successful cleaning company located in Manhattan to find good, qualified cleaners as a Recruiter / Account Manager for almost 6-7 years, along my other recruitment duties and clients.
I'd like to talk about particularly this sector in my this article because I found out that this is the most underlying / ignored sector ever in our daily lives.
I've also worked with several other cleaning companies to assist them to find cleaners throughout NYC yet particularily this one gave me more insight to learn more about the business and challenges because I was visiting their offices, attending their orientations and having conversations with their CEO all the time.
Once they hire the cleaners they were having orientations to talk about how their cleaning system works, what they can and can't do in the job, how to report their daily routine to the supervisors etc. And the orientation started always with this phrase by the CEO:
"People hire cleaners because they don't want to clean their own shit! If you don't want to clean people's shit, leave the room now because this job is not for you."
"The shit" that they were talking about was the browny shit literally we know in the toilets! What happens is when a cleaner starts a job, it's always a haven until it comes to the ugly side; They have to clean people's shit in the toilets! And it gets really nasty sometimes with a clogged toilet and / or with lots of unpleasant odor! (And view.) So, what happens is they leave the job stating that they can't take it, it's too unbearable!
Some cleaners throw up right there, some scream and leave the premises and some just contine because they have to have this job, they have no better choice!!!
But of couse as you can imagine none of them likes cleaning the toilets! Would you like it? I don't think so. Nobody likes it but we want to live in a healthy and hygienically clean environment so we clean our toilets or we hire cleaners or housekeepers to clean them.
If people can afford cleaners they hire them. Especially in a busy lifestyle cleaners are our right hands to keep our environment healthy.
Of course toilets are not their main areas of work but that's when they face the reality of their work lives! Someone has to do it! And I guess if people would be little more careful about their body disposals the cleaners can enjoy their jobs more! And cleaning companies don't lose their workers.
The background of a cleaner is somehow similar: People who can't find better jobs! And people who like cleaning - No!! Not always! But at least they have the ability to feel okay with it. They are usually quiet people, most of them are new immigrants with limited or no English therefore this is the only job (or one of few) that they can find so they have to take it and do a good job so they can keep it. Another position that a non English speaker can find is a dishwasher position. Right now in the US there is no other job that you can find with no English. In all other jobs you have to have at least limited English. (There might be some exceptions of course, I am talking about in general terms.)
Even in cleaning companies those days they require some English knowledge because the workers have to be able to understand their supervisors' comments and orders and they have to be able to report the emergencies.
Cleaning is not a job only for new immigrants; there are American born Americans doing those jobs as well. If they are uneducated and can't find other jobs for some reason, they stick in the cleaning business.
And there are a few people in the market even though they can find other jobs they still stay in the cleaning business because they like working independently and they like working flexible hours. Some people also do it because they have a dream to start up their own cleaning business later on and become a boss.
Unless you have your own cleaning company; it's hard to make a good living in this business yet you can make okay money. You definelty can make a living with a cleaning job as long as you are okay cleaning people's toilets, right?
However housekeeping jobs are a little different than the cleaning jobs. Although you can have the similar job duties, you can become only one family's housekeeper and considered as an extended member of that family. In a cleaning job, most of the times they don't even know your name and who you are.
You don't only clean the houses or apartments. You also clean workplaces. I know people work as a cleaner who clean residents in the day time and workplaces in tne evening time, after hours.
Sometime in the past I was considering to become a partner of a cleaning company. For that reason for almost three months I went to the private houses in NJ with a cleaning company to observe the business and to see how they work. This was an amazing experience that I can never forget (later on I decided not to become a business partner.)
First of all they work systematically. They follow a system. They have a routine. And if the house or apt is big, they clean it with 3-5 cleaners at the same time so they can finish early.
In their routine: For example, they start pouring the cleaning liquids (those contain heavy chemicals) in the bathroom(s) and then putting laundry in the washing machines, then cleaning the kitchen, washing dishes, tiding up the rooms, vacuuming the floors, cleaning the bathrooms etc.
The chemicals that they use in the bathrooms are so heavy and you have to breath them! Those days most companies go with the eco-friendly ones. But still they stink and you have to inhale them.
I remember once I had to throw myself to outside, to the garden in order to breath!!! The chemicals that we used in the bathroom went directly into my lungs! This was how I felt it. And I remember one Hispanic lady got cancer later on. Her friends told her that it happened due to her cleaning job.
One day two of us went to clean a mansion located somewhere in the forest in South New Jersey. OMG! It's huge and so elegant mansion. Some rooms had concepts. Here are some examples of the concepts of rooms: Harley Davidson room (as you can imagine everything in the room was about Harley Davidson), Christmas Room, Swarowski Room and Gift Wrapping room.
The owner was a very famous Italian - American arthitect and he builded this mansion recently he said as we met with him after we were done with our jobs. He had 5 sport cars including a Ferrari and all the cars were parked on silk carpets.
I told him that I liked his house very much. He said that he builded the house for his wife but the wife left him soon after to go with her plastic surgeon. The owner remained living in the mansion with his children and he had a girlfriend staying there time to time.
He said to me: "Nothing is like what you see from outside."
What I am trying to say is that there is no simple job. Every job is precious. Even in my this little cleaning experience, I've learned a lot. Cleaning job sometimes lead you to meet other people with different lifestyles and you learn and grow.
And one day if you can manage to operate your own cleaning company you can make desent money. Your city sources will help you to support your business through loans or training, such as small business administrations in your city.
In terms of cleaning as a career you can always promoto to become a supervisor or manager or even CEO of a cleaning company.
If it's so hard to take it in people's residents and workplaces, I can't imagine how it's like in public cleaning! God bless you guys whomever cleans public toilets! Seriously, since we can't educate people enough yet, I hope that one day only robots will clean the toilets! And I hope karma will find those havenly cleaners to bless them.
You clean after your dogs! So pick up your shit too guys! Just please clean your body disposals, don't leave it to the cleaners so they can enjoy their jobs more.
Happy cleaners will create a happy society!
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