To ask about your office environment?

[Workenvironment]

Hi All

Im just wondering how offices work with regards to cleanliness and people tidying up after themselves.

I.e its expected people clean up after themselves but people just don't bother and most of the stafg are lazy.

Theres boxes and overflowing bins around. Whos job is it to sort this out or who should bring it up if there is no "management" in the office?

Do people just ignore the issue?

We're responsible for our desks being tidy, but bins and actual cleaning is the cleaner's job. She'll clean any clear surfaces, if your desk is a total mess then it doesn't get cleaned.

Big things like boxes we take down to the skip, generally they'll be left for a while but we'll have a 15 minute tidy up and all chip in.

Our cleaner is in charge of all of it, but if your desk is extremely messy it doesn’t get cleaned.

Thanks for replying. Who take the boxes to the skip though? Most of them are peoples personal shopping items delivered to the office so they are not office supply boxes iyswim

Also the kitchen and dishwasher etc. If people dont tidy up after themselves it gets frustrating

Cleaning staff empty bins and properly clean the kitchens and bathrooms, vacuum, etc.

Staff are expected to make sure refuse is in the bin and wipe up small spills and such. So basically don’t leave a big mess in shared spaces.

Big cleanup jobs like paper purges can request assistance from maintenance staff who will bring in extra bins, shredders, carts, or whatever is needed.

What if the cleaner comes on a saturday bit by Thursday people are overloading the bin rather than emptying it ?

Employer has (daily) cleaners who do most of that.
My bug bear is mugs left in the sink; not cleaners' problem & who are the feckwits who think it's reasonable to leave their mucky mugs & bowls for days on end?? Argh.

I also got a microbiologist (colleague) to give the fridge a clean when we moved in. Something unnamed was in the door, I think I bought colleague a pint to clean that. I'm pretty easily grossed out.

We have a clear desk policy so everything needs to be cleared away at the end of the day.

All rubbish goes into central bins which are cleared by the cleaners. We have two colleagues who are responsible for ordering stationary etc, so they clear away any packaging to a central location where again the cleaner takes them away.

We can’t get personal shopping delivered for security reasons. Packaging from official parcels would get left near the trash/recycling and the cleaner would collect. Anything particularly big you could call and ask maintenance to clear. I work in an extremely large company though. We have a large support staff to make the building run.

I've always worked with places with daily cleaners so most of what you are complaining about is covered by them. I currently work in a school and we have a dishwasher in the staff room and main office - the staff room sink is always over flowing with dirty cups and always have rings of tea/coffee on the sides. Most of our teachers are filthy and don't think it's their job to put their used dishes in the dishwasher - whereas the office which is predominantly used by support staff is rarely left in a state.

We have to do our own washing up. But there are no spare mugs so if you don't wash up, you can't have a drink!

Cleaners are daily.

Im thinking we need the cleaners in more.

Kitchens and bathrooms done by day cleaners - including dishwashers, crockery and cutlery, sink emptying, cleaning out of fridges, restocking the fridges with milk, doing the daily papers. Done continuously from 7 until 7.

Main office space done by overnight cleaners - vacuuming, desk cleaning and rubbish clearing, IT cleaning (screens, keyboards), communal areas including lifts, corridors and meeting rooms. Bins.

Windows - contractor once a month.

Public communal area - overnight contractors

Post, stationary, tickets, leaks, electricity outages, break ins, lifts not working, concrete rot on the main stairwell - maintenance/ facilities. Daily 8-6

Our office is still a hovel - not because our cleaning staff aren't effective, just because I work with slobs. Never accept an invite to eat at the house of one of the people work with.

I did work for a family business (not my family) where we were expected to empty bins and clean the kitchen etc. I point blank refused, I’m happy to keep my desk tidy and not cause fire hazards with boxes but I’m not a cleaner. Employing a proper cleaner is a cost of doing business.

My office is cleaned everyday, the dishwasher is loaded & unloaded multiple times a day by cleaners, they restock the fridge of soft drinks & milk, put the coffee beans in the machine. Any big boxes get chucked by the bin & they take them at the end of the day. We are supposed to keep the desks tidy, but I think the cleaners end up collecting stuff & taking it to the kitchen to sort out at the end of the day.

They’ll be an office martyr along any minute to say that they do an office deep clean even though that isn’t their job...

We take stuff that won't fit in a waste bin to the outside bins. Everyone is responsible for their own desks and washing up. If washing up has been sat there for more than 2 days, I will bag it up and hide it (we all have our own plates, bowls, cups and cutlery). We do have cleaners, but respect them and don't take the piss.

The office across the way have their own micro environment.

No deep cleaning though, just tidying up after ourselves and not being mingers.

On another post, somebody said that a civil servant with no work to do employed in a professional job should be doing an office deep clean. The joys of MN where nothing has any basis in reality!

We clear our own desks, and empty our bins if full - we have separate bin and recycling, however it's only usually the recycling needs emptying. Wash our own stuff up in the kitchen and expected to keep it clear. Cleaner comes twice a week and hoovers/dusts and cleans kitchen/loos.

We have a recycling box and a waste bin in the kitchen which the cleaner empties. Office paper bins are cleared by the cleaner. We take our own crockery and load it into the dishwasher. Whoever locks up turns the dishwasher on. The cleaner empties it in the morning. The Office Manager will go round every now and again and speak to people about keeping their office tidy etc. We have a designated fire Marshall who can request stuff be moved etc if it is a hazard.

You definitely need a more frequent cleaner. Ours does five days, five hours per day. We are a team of 30.

Do you have a Shred It bin for paper waste?

Our kitchen is a sty.
Folk leave festering cups/bowls....for weeks. Followed by the usual P.A notice saying clean up ya filthy fuckers in a polite way.
It's all hot desking, so for me, I have no pride of ownership at the desk. It's littered with post-its, staples and my unwashed cup.
No point having anything I like there when someone is there the minute my back is turned.
We don't have drawers at our desks, we have banks of drawers so it's up, down, up down.
Plenty of communal bins and recycling though.
No beverages provided and the fridges have about 20 named pints of milk....1 person posted a note demanding that her stolen twinings was returned asap. 🙄

Technically, it is our cleaners responsibility for all the bins etc but our team always empty our individual bins into the main on at end of evening.

Our cleaners will wash our mugs up if we forget and leave on desk (not their job in the slightest, they are just lovely) so we try and do bits to make their job a little easier where possible.