To hate the way some people talk to cleaners?

[clairemcnam]

Or anyone else they see as below them.
I have seen this in a variety of workplaces, both small private firms, the public sector and universities. Staff with well paid jobs being patronising, talking down to people and making it clear that they think they are better off than cleaners and any other staff with a low status. I hate it, and yet it is fairly common.

I agree with you entirely. A cleaning job is good honest work. Because it's at the bottom of the occupation ladder then most people think themselves 'better than that'. However, I say any job that pays a wage is better than no wage at all. However, the attitude of people in other job titles don't understand it's exactly that ''a job title''. We're all cleaners at some point in time whether we work or not. Most of us if not all of us clean dishes/wash clothes/tidy rooms/wash floors/empty bins/etc; so, therefore, the title ''cleaner'' is universal and should be better understood.
Any person that 'talks down' to any cleaner reflects on their own manners and respect.

I used to teach i now clean to fund my degree. Love it and my clients are very grateful.

I've worked in a lot of offices, starting as a junior and eventually working my way up to be fairly senior and head of a large department.

After a career break bringing up a family, I decided to take a Saturday job in a shop to help make ends meet.

That was much the poorest-paid job I've ever had, and also far and away the worst I have ever been treated, and looked down on, by an employer. She, and her daughter, treated me like absolute dirt. I took the greatest pleasure in eventually being able to tell her where to stick her job. I was also thrilled to find out that the business went down the tubes shortly afterwards. Served her right, the cow.

IHaveBrilloHair
My cleaner went to America last year!
I an really curious. Why the exclamation mark that a cleaner went to America?
It looks like you cant actually believe ( as my kids would say) that a cleaner could go the USA.

We always ask our receptionist about interviewees - it's amazing how many people talk to the reception team like dirt but then are all smiles when the interview team walks in.....

Yes, yes notacooldad
That's exactly the context I was using it in, clearly.

Years ago I had an office cleaning job and was made to feel like dirt by some of the staff who took pleasure in talking down to me. After a while I had enough and posted their keys back through the door on a Friday night. I can imagine their shock when they came in on the monday morning and the whole place was still a filthy mess with bins overflowing and dirty cups everywhere. How we treat others is definitely a reflection of ourselves.

Oh the irony of it,
Where I work (engineering) the contracted cleaner is on a higher hourly rate than the vast majority of shop floor workers!

She's lovely, every xmas all the lads chip in and a buy her a gift as way of thank you. We all take time to talk to her, she's well travelled and always has interesting things to talk off, last year she went off on a motorbike cruise through Europe.

I know of another cleaner who's husband works for British Gas as a service engineer. She earns more than him!!, They purchased a massive farm house a few years ago, complete with stables and indoor pool, part of the house is let in the holidays. She still works as a cleaner full time. Plus they already own several other properties that they let out.

People should never judge others by what they do for a living, all jobs are important and all help to keep society moving.

Depends where you work. My dad is a cleaner for a police station and the officers there treat him as one of their own. Previously he’s cleaned for schools and had no issues as teachers usually weren’t there but when he cleaned for pubs it was horrendous and people were vile (think shitting in a schooner glass and leaving it next to the toilet...)

IHaveBrilloHair

*Yes, yes notacooldad
That's exactly the context I was using it in, clearly
No, I'm genuinely interested, I wasn't being sarcastic. I can't figure out why a cleaner going to America deserves an exclamation mark.

@notacooldad pretty sure it was just because the post above her original one stated her cleaner went to America, so she said 'ah yes my cleaner went to America last year too!' (Just worded it differently)

Jesus, calm down.

The posts about hospital cleaners made me smile. When I was working on wards the ward cleaner ruled the roost. Even Matron was subservient to her. I was also a hospital cleaner for a while and was treated with respect and kindness. Maybe because the job is so vital in a clinical setting?
Sometimes I hear friends bitching about their cleaners though and it makes me itch.

People can be awful. We had a regular handyman whom I saw a lot of as our house was a total diva and always needing minor repairs, and DH and I are no good at DIY. He was a big tea drinker (like me) and very hand working and all-round lovely. He always used to comment on my generosity with tea, to which I said that when I got in to the office, the first thing I would do was turn in the computer, then while it was booting up make tea, and why should it be different for him? He said he’d been laying a hardwood floor the other week, it had been high summer and lots of sawdust, he heard the husband say to the wife “don’t offer him anything to drink until that floor’s down”. 😡

Jesus, calm down
I'm not frothing at the mouth or anything! I was just,' oh, I dont get why it's a surprise someone should go to America' that's all!

I work in a university and the cleaners, maintenance guys and security staff are 100% part of the team. I’ve gotten to know them well and we have a good laugh. We always chip in at Christmas to buy them gifts.

The cleaning supervisor is a total battleaxe, I love her she says exactly what she means - no beating around the bush there!

I’m sure it’s a much it’s a mix, just like most things in life. I think you can judge an organisational culture by how the people on the lower rungs are treated and involved.
People work better when treated with respect and are involved in the team. It’s to everyone’s advantage to be courteous and caring to all.
I can’t imagine using a public lavatory or being brought tea by a junior member of staff without thanking them and passing the time of day.
At home I always make our cleaners drinks and have a brief chat. I wouldn’t want someone I didn’t trust or treat respectfully providing such a personal service as cleaning my house.

I called out a student for putting gum under the table and said it wasn't fair to have X clean it.

I was met with, "You know the name of the cleaner?"

I pointed out that there is nothing wrong with doing a cleaning job, they had no right to look down on her and that if you leave gum stuck to a table for someone else to clean you were dirty.

A student threatened to tell her gran (Jamaican - if you don't know it is one of those words with a worse connotation in some communities than others) that I had called her dirty, I said I was quite happy to explain to her gran that I think any school child who expects someone else to clean up their gum, is, in my opinion dirty.

If you look down on cleaners, bar staff, waiting staff, you are just not a very nice person.

I thought I heard or read yrs ago (feck knows where) that there were only 3 distinctly well-developed & widely used sign languages in world: ASL, BSL & Nicaraguan. I'm happy to be corrected from this ignorance, though

Everywhere with a deaf population has a sign language, Canada has 3. American Sign Language is based on French sign language.

Auslan and NZ SL are based on BSL.

Martha's vineyard had its own distinct sign language but as the population became more hearing (it used to be quite isolated with some hereditary deafness so all families had a deaf member and everyone could sign).

Even within BSL there are huge differences in signs, lots used on See Hear are actually Scottish because the original presenters were Scottish.

This can cause confusion, the Scottish BSL sign for 'arrange or organise' is a rather crude sign for having sex in English BSL.

And scouse? You know how a Liverpool accent cannot be confused with any other, Liverpool signs are, er, different.

In places like Glasgow you may also get a variation between RC and protestant deaf people, because they attended different schools.

For the same reason in the USA there is a Black sign variant from when there were deaf schools for Black people which were separate from the ones for white people.

Years ago I worked as a temp. One of the directors despised temps, openly calling us "the scum of the earth".

There were countless times he'd blatantly ignore me, but one time that stands out is when he was coming down the stairs and waiting at the bottom was a manager, the cleaner and me. He thanked the manager for waiting. He thanked the cleaner for waiting. He then looked at me and walked away. I wasn't worthy of his thanks.

I think it's a deal breaker in a friendship. Speaking to anyone rudely or not speaking to them due to subordinate role is a true marker of someone who is a complete arse tbh
I used to see someone regularly. She then asked me 'why do you speak to these people' (I'd chatted to hosp porter) I've not been out with her since.

I love talking to the cleaners where I work - they know all the gossip!

I only see the cleaner in my office because I get in early. I say hello as a matter of courtesy, but I don't consider her to be my colleague or part of the team like some pp have said. She isn't part of my team, she's part of the cleaning staff team.

In the same way I would also say hi to the security staff, the receptionist or the post room staff if I happen to walk past them. We have one particularly friendly post guy.. he comes to collect and deliver mail to our floor. Always cheerful and says hello to everyone.

Most of the time the cleaner has her earphones on and is talking on the phone.

This saying hello is also a two way street. The cleaners can say hello too. We've had some in the past who don't say hello and just get on with the job. That's fine by me.

When my DH died (in an accident) I received so many letters and cards, but one of the ones that was really special to me was from his office cleaner. She wrote to tell me how lovely and kind DH had been to her, helping her once in a particular situation when several other office staff had just kept on walking and blanked her completely despite it being obvious that she was in distress.
This meant so much to me, because it was exactly why I loved him so much. You ANBU.

Everyone I know who has a cleaner at home is so nice to them they basically are frightened to ask them to do anything else / differently.
My friend has one who cancels more than she attends but my friend just feels her life is so much harder (first generation immigrant, lives in a slightly dangerous area, child at a struggling school) that she would never give her notice.
I don’t know where the ride arrigant people are but thankfully not here.

Treatment of cleaning/domestic staff is a great litmus test. Anyone who treats service staff like dirt can be immediately removed from your life.

I was taught very early on to be careful on the way up because you never know who you might meet on the way down.

I've had a hairdresser with a masters who spoke 5 languages and my current (home) cleaner has a degree in Psychology.

People are twats.