To ask them to use the other stairs?

[ThrowAwayQP]

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think I was bu; but I’m willing to be told if that’s the case.

So I’ve recently started a part time job cleaning for a bit of extra income. It’s in a large corporate environment. The building is quite large with only two stair cases; one at either end; but to be honest I think walking between them would only take five minutes at most.

The other day I was mopping one of the stair cases and two of the department managers came walking down it. They were both looking at a laptop and deep in conversation, so I assumed they just hadn’t seen the wet floor sign. I asked them if in future they could use the other stairs this one was being cleaned and they both mumbled a “sorry” before carrying on.

The next morning one of the senior team pulled me aside and told me he was “sure experienced staff could decide if they wanted to take the risk of walking down wet stairs.”

I was quite shocked at being ‘put in my place’ so to speak? Was I actually being unreasonable? All I asked was them not to walk where I was currently mopping!

YANBU. It's incredible rude for anyone to walk over clean, wet, floor and get it dirty again immediately if they have the choice of walking elsewhere. IDGAF if they are your employers (as others have pointedly said), it's still rude.

*incredibly

To be fair, OP herself said that she doesn’t think that 10 minutes of her time is that important, but honestly, to some people it is.

I do kind of envy people for whom 10 minutes are irrelevant.For me, its a huge amount of time. i would have to choose between my lunch break and the other stairs, for example. not everybody has a slow paced, cushy job!

IAmAlwaysLikeThis
In social and public settings, I will treat everyone the same way (obviously adjusting for personal feelings of the individual once I know them) but in a workplace setting, there is a chain of command. It’s not personal and it’s not about some people being less worthy than others. But there is tiered system of importance; that’s just how it works. And a cleaner can’t be telling managers what to do. No one should be disrespectful or rude to anyone; they all need to rub along together, but that chain of command is always in the background and even the cleaner needs to be aware of that.

In a live office, cleaners aren’t there to keep everything sparkling for X amount of time. They are there to keep it going. If the floor was never mopped, it would be absolutely filthy but once it’s been mopped/as it’s being mopped, it can be walked on. It doesn’t matter if you leave some scuff marks, that’s what happens in a workplace in use. The point of mopping the floors is to stop those marks and dirt building up to a filthy level. You don’t put them out of use to keep them shiny; you just come back and mop again the next day. If she wants the stairs closed for the cleaning period then she needs to go to the site manager and discuss it and then put barriers in place, but she interrupt the employees and expect them to take a half mile detour just to avoid stairs being cleaned. They work in an office so I don’t imagine their shoes were thick with mud, and as long as they walked carefully and stayed out of her way as they passed then that is respectful. Stopping them and telling them to go to the other side of a huge building is not respectful.

Nobody should believe that their 'work' is more important than somebody else's work.

What a ludicrous statement. I rather thing the people keeping us safe, healthy and keeping our lights on are doing more important work than the man running the local vape shop.

The reality is that within a business some work will carry more value than other work at any given tome. What is, potentially, chargeable client work or work generating revenue is more valuable to a firm than having one of two staircases spick and span every single day.

I think you might need to remember that you are there to make their life easier, not the other way around.

I've been on both sides of this. I've worked in a senior position with significant responsibilities and, at times, had my best intentions thwarted by jobsworth caretakers who seemed to think that the organisation existed for no other reason than to facilitate their little fiefdom.

At another time in my life I've been the cleaner, taking my work so seriously that in hindsight I'd lost perspective of the bigger picture.

What is, potentially, chargeable client work or work generating revenue is more valuable to a firm than having one of two staircases spick and span every single day.
I agree with this to a point, but it is true that non fee generating work is vital to the running of the organisation. Nobody is getting any work if the phones aren’t answered by the non fee generating receptionist. The director’s PA is non fee generating, but necessary. Our office manager is non fee generating but the place really struggled when she wasn’t replaced during her maternity leave.

But yes, the company won’t fall apart if the floors aren’t cleaned today.

Yes you were being a bit unreasonable in asking them to add additional time into their schedule.

However they were massively unreasonable to take it further.

What was wrong with “sorry, don’t have time but we’ll be careful”.

Nobody should believe that their 'work' is more important than somebody else's work.

As someone in a senior position, I find this a very narrow, self-aggrandising, ungrateful attitude.

I worked my way up from the most junior position in the company. Since achieving senior leadership status, I have worked hard to remove many of the obstacles and annoyances of staff in the lower level, improve their remuneration package, increased working flexibility and reduced hours without reducing pay. At the same time, I have been planning for the financial security of the company so that their jobs are safe for the long term. During busy times, I have mucked in with the entry level work because they needed my help.

Their work is categorically easier. It is categorically less stressful. Less valuable. So yes, when people turn their noses up at being asked to do simple things to make MY life easier, I think 'you don't have a bloody clue'.

It's not a question of superiority, it's a question of importance - not of people, but of what they do.

"Their work is categorically easier. It is categorically less stressful. Less valuable."

Yes, and don't they get told that by society at every turn?

Do you think that is an easy situation to live in? Being told you are basically worthless? Besides having to live on a shitty wage.

I'd say the stress I felt as a cleaner/bar staff on minimum wage is far greater than any stress I've felt in a so-called professional job, because at least I knew I could pay the bills, people weren't sneering at me, I wasn't going to get shouted at by twats who think they're above me, my back wasn't killing from physical labour, my hands weren't dry from chemicals and water.

Besides which, most professional jobs enrich no-one's life beyond making money. At least cleaners make the place nice for everyone.

Some of the attitudes on here absolutely repulse me.

"In social and public settings, I will treat everyone the same way (obviously adjusting for personal feelings of the individual once I know them) but in a workplace setting, there is a chain of command."

Since when does the cleaner report to someone in the office?

And since when does them being 'above' her mean that they can do whatever the fuck they like?

YABU I’m afraid.

At my workplace I always avoid the toilets when the cleaners put their ‘cleaning in progress’ sign in the entrance to the loo because I think they’d like to work undisturbed, and there are other toilets 100 yards away.

But I wouldn’t walk an extra 10 minutes to avoid a wet staircase.

Although I don’t know why they used the term ‘experienced staff’. Are they trained in walking up wet stairs? 😂

The wet floor sign is a warning, if people want to walk on a wet floor it's there choice if they slip and fall there's no fault laid on the company as the sign was up
Bit petty telling on you though.

They definitely should have apologised before coming down the stairs but unless the stairs are blocked off then this will always happen.

I think I would have seethed inside that they were walking down my nice clean stairs but not said anything beyond a muttered, ‘be careful’, ThrowawayQP.

I am a bit shocked by some of the attitudes on this thread towards people doing essential but poorly paid jobs. Of course some employees are more valuable to a company than others but clearly these terribly busy important men still had a few minutes in their schedule to complain about the woman cleaner who was doing her job.

@IamAlwaysLikeThis
well said, being a cleaner is a back breaking job, cleaners make places look nice, not a word of thank's is said just a pittance of a wage,

And since when does them being 'above' her mean that they can do whatever the fuck they like?

I'd say 'doing whatever the fuck you like' in this scenario applies more to the person making up rules that aren't actually rules to suit themselves, than to the people questioning said rules. I'm a manager and there are loads of things I'd like to ask people in work not to do, but I don't because I've no actual right to. I imagine most reasonable people feel the same.

You were rude. They can walk down whichever stairs they choose to.

Unless it’s policy for staff to use alternative stairs when one set is being cleaned, you had no authority to tell them to use the other ones. I get that it’s annoying for you but so is adding extra time to your working day when it sounds like it was already outside of core hours. Not sure it was worth them raising it as an issue though, seems petty to me.

Aw diddums! Those poor senior managers told off by a mere woman

It was pathetic of them to report you

But I honestly wouldn’t consider my time so important that an extra ten minutes so precious.

You are being VERY BU

that 10 minute can mean
being late for a conference call
missing my train
being late to collect my kids

I would have said "sorry" and used the stairs. I don't care if you are a male or female cleaner, I would also have had a word - I would not be too pleased if you had told one of our clients to use the other stairs, the staff can shrug it off.

No cleaner would tell us to stay away from the kitchen when they are cleaning it either - they tend to apologise to be in the way, staff apologises back to be in their way and everybody is happy

I'm not sure whether you're being unreasonable or not tbh, but I think 5 mins each way to another set of stairs is a LOT longer than you realise!

Yabu to tell them to go another way. YANBU to resent being reported unless you said it with a tone. It does very much depend on how you said it.

I think the real issue here OP is that you went above your station and told some managers what to do, a big no no for a cleaner or any mere mortal. They clearly didn’t like it. Honestly (and I’ve been a cleaner) I wouldn’t tell people not to use the stairs. As long as there’s a wet floor sign and they are happy to take the slip risk. When you’re cleaning floors you just have to accept that they will be immediately used again, it’s just one of those things. It’s not like they were trampling with muddy wellies.

I'd rather take five minutes to walk to the other stairs than risk five weeks flat on my back or in a plaster cast!