To complain about the office cleaning lady?

[TERFousBreakdown]

She seems nice enough, I don't know her personally and I have absolutely nothing against her in general.

But she doesn't knock. She doesn't take no for an answer either. Holding a meeting in the conference room? She'll pop in and start hoovering. Sitting in a room giving a performance review? She'll open the door and begin to dust. She'll also leave the door wide open when she leaves a room - despite there being three companies within this building and our facilities being access controlled (which obviously won't work if the door is left open).

I've asked her to knock a gazillion times. She won't. I've asked her to come back later when she has disturbed important stuff. She'll huff and puff and will need to be asked at least twice before actually stopping whatever it is she's doing. My colleague had a talk, too, about the door being left open for anyone to look right at our whiteboard with confidential calculations for a sale. Nothing seems to work.

And, yes, she does understand. It's not a language issue. She just doesn't seem to be arsed.

I get that this woman is paid a lot less than myself and my colleagues and that she probably has kids or a life to get back to after her shift. I really don't want to get her into trouble. I do desperately want her to be minimally considerate of the people working here, though.

So, AIBU to complain to the building manager?

You'd be surprised how many companies prefer cleaners in during working hours. Its because they don't have to worry about us being key holders or locking up securely.
I used to do it and yes, you should knock and ask if its ok to clean in a room.

I’d approach the building manager but frame it as a complaint about the schedule/ general arrangments rather than a complaint about the woman cleaning.

It isn’t about who’s work is more important it’s about the room being already in use. OP would doubtless be equally annoyed if she was having a meeting and someone barged in to start a different one.

Honestly raver ive never known a cleaning person not on seeing a room being used doing something else and coming back later. Its basic manners. Complain op she not respecting that someone else is using that room at that time.

Weird. The problem is probably with what her company has been contracted to do, when and in how much time. Or, they are trying to cut corners. The basics you describe may not have been explained to her - by the building manager, or more likely by the cleaning company she works for.

I clean offices if a room is in use I go back later if it's still busy I do it the next day. Make a note of it incase anyone complains the room is not cleaned and I can tell them why. I used to work after hours but now have to work during hours and it's a nightmare. She def shouldn't be doing that. As a cleaner you're meant to be invisible and work around people. That's what I was always told anyway. People will sometimes see me and say it's ok come in and then I do but never without being given the OK.

The problem is that you’re in someone else’s building. You do not represent her employer or manager, so she’s only going to do what her manager has told her to do, not some here today gone tomorrow random (the message that The Customer Is Always Right is rarely communicated to cleaners because it’s rarely relevant). Talk to the facilities manager, nicely, and get them to change the arrangements in some acceptable way.

I think if a company wants their cleaning service in during business hours for whatever reason they will understand that not EVERY room will be able to be cleaned at each and every visit due to client activity.

While it seems pretty obvious to most people that a room in use would not be cleaned that time. It sounds like this information has not been relayed to the cleaner who has been told what the the usual job spec is without adding the obvious instruction to leave any rooms in use for meetings etc.

She will not feel able to alter the spec without instruction so just goes blasting through whatever.

Seems easy to resolve with a new plan if the owner of the cleaning service could be asked to add to the cleaners' job notes to leave any rooms in obvious use and leave the doors closed of x y z rooms.

If she THEN fails to follow the new instructions it's worthy of a complaint to the cleaning company but at the moment it just seems she is following the job spec to the letter regardless of client activity as she thinks she has to.

You need to take it to the building facilities manager, but framed as a problem with the cleaning schedule / systems rather than a personal issue with this person. (Confidential meetings are interrupted, rather than saying that Shirley bursts in on meetings; doors are left open with confidential information unsecured rather than Shirley always leaves doors open, that sort of thing).

Can you not lock the door from the inside?

It's common sense not to hoover when someones on the phone. You could complain, however if she's stopped doing a room she may not be able to go back to it so it won't get cleaned. As long as you're ok with that.

She probably has a long list of jobs to do within her mornings work and wouldn't be able to fit it all in if everyone's telling her to come back later. It sounds like her hours need to be changed.

It can be very time consuming for a cleaner to have to keep bypassing areas which are in use. All that walking backwards and forwards with a vacuum cleaner and other stuff is hard work (I speak from experience).
She is probably worried that she won't get everything done in the allotted time.
The set up sounds far from ideal and a change to her hours sounds like a good idea.

Our cleaners are in during office hours too and its always struck me as really odd. The desks never get cleaned because people are sat there whilst they are working...

We have our offices cleaned in the morning during office hours. Our choice, so no issue with keys/alarms etc.

Not the preferred choice of the cleaning company but that is what we wanted.

Our cleaner cleans around us, but will stop hoovering when the phone goes.

OP you need to ascertain what the requirements are of the contract.

If you are in shared services temporary offices then you are going to have less choice, so to speak, in what happens around you.

I am sure your cleaner doesnt give two shiny shites about whatever your meeting is going on about though.

I don't know...if I were planning industrial espionage, what better way than to go in armed with a hoover, a duster, and pretend not to understand 'not now, please'?

Someone said you can go anywhere if you are carrying a piece of paper and walking meaningfully, perhaps the same applies to carrying a mop?

our office cleaner is part of the team. she must hoover before 9 is the only rule. our cleaner is so considerate. shes finds its very strange we thank her daily and include her for her birthday and office events.

we make the tea or coffee and she joins us for a cuppa before we start the day ( we have a meeting just before start).

why don't you have a quiet word with her and find out why shes doing this?

Outsourced cleaners have no choice about what they have to get done and when. I work in a school, and our cleaners are given a pitifully short time to get everything done, so they need to rattle through really quickly. She is just doing as she is told. Speak to her boss (maintenance manager?) about the cleaner's working hours by all means, but phrase it in a way that you understand that its not her fault. The cleaner is probably terrified of losing her job if your room doesn't get cleaned or if she doesn't finish on time, and both of those things might not be possible if she has to wait until you are finished.

Like you she has a job to do. Such as clean meeting room x. Dust conference room y. Why should she not do this because of you? Oh yes. It's because you feel your role is more important. She prob has a family to get home to and dosnt want to wait until you have finished your meeting to dust.

The OP handles performance reviews and confidential financial information. Her role IS more important than the cleaning. Your desperation to come off as champion of the little people has led to common sense deserting you.

Or, perhaps she’s employed by the other companies and she’s actually a spy.....

Can not believe people are saying the OP is BU!

Of course she shouldn't be just waltzing in without knocking, hoovering whilst people are working, never closing doors etc etc.

Definitely bring it up with your manager.

She needs to complete her work within her shift hours, she can't be expected to wait round for you. She should knock but you would be unreasonable to stop her.

I don't know what part of confidential information you people aren't getting.

Maybe cleaners should be allowed to clean in a hospital ward when a private examination is going on, or in the prime ministers office when she's making a top secret decision or maybe we should allow cleaners to pop into the OR whilst surgeons are saving lives?

OP is paying to use the offices, she should be able to use them as she sees fit! Privacy included!

Thinking about it, this is the perfect cover. She's a spy.

Next time, stop what you're doing for 2 mins and wave her out the room for a brief chat. Say you feel you've asked her twice now and she ignores. If she continues to ignore, next chat will be with the facilities manager. Thank you.

I know pretty well how crap outsourced cleaning jobs can be (used to work for a hotel as a student and saw it first hand) - hence my reluctance to steam roll all over the place and request for advice.

Regarding the confidentiality aspect: while I don't exactly suspect her of being a corporate spy (but then I guess I wouldn't if she were any good at her job, I suppose ), I do have my own employer's policies to enforce. And these do include stuff like access controlled facilities and avoiding exposure of information to unauthorised parties (e.g. wiping the whiteboard and shredding used flip chart sheets ourselves before we leave the room).

Meeting the building manager this afternoon, btw.

If I was the cleaner I would ask if it was ok to clean the room. If permission wasn't given by the time my shift finished I would leave a note or text my manager explaining why the room hadn't been cleaned.