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!

"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"

So if you had just mopped the floor, you'd be cool with someone walking all over it?

Well, she can just clean it again, right? No big deal.

YABU. In any working environment, expecting people to go for a 10 minute detour is not realistic. A brief apology is needed of course.

Also, if you are cleaning while the building is in use, I am guessing the whole stairs weren't wet? Our cleaners use products and appliances which dry almost immediately, so the risk is minimal.

Obviously it's bloody irritating to mop a floor and then have someone walk over it. I think the problem is that it's nor realistic in this situation to have an entire staircase out of action during the day when people expect to be using it. I'm sure this isn't OP's fault - more an issue with the cleaning company who decided that was a good time to have the stairs mopped.

If you walk on slippery stairs you could break a leg or worse. I’m not taking that risk.

that you went above your station and told some managers what to do, a big no no for a cleaner or any mere mortal.

what do you think "managers" are? Species from another planet? They are just people like anyone.

No you weren't being unreasonable. Just because lots of people have no manners doesn't make it right.
You are doing a job they should have the manners to wait or find another route.
Just because people work in the office doesn't mean their time is anymore important than yours.
Someone is cleaning the stairs, find another route.
Someone is cleaning the toilets, wait outside till they have finished or find another toilet.
Someone is cleaning the floor in a supermarket, go and do the rest of your shopping and come back later. It's basic manners.
I'm amazed at how many people are so disrespectful. You are completing your job people should see that and have the manners to change their actions so you can complete your job. People are very lazy.

If I was being unreasonable; then I’ll have to accept that. But I honestly wouldn’t consider my time so important that an extra ten minutes so precious.

YABU ten minutes is precious, and it may not be just their own time they are considering, it could be the time of people sitting in the meeting room at the bottom of the wet stairs who wouldn't appreciate waiting an extra 10 minutes.
They were told when en route so with no time to factor in the added time.

They may have asked if there's actually going to be a new system of closing the staircase for cleaning as they'd need to know about it.

I get that it's annoying but it's not like being at home where you can say I'm mopping the kitchen floor, nobody go in until it dries. You and they are there to work. If there are marks on the floor so be it, and if anyone takes that up with you there is an explanation.

it's nor realistic in this situation to have an entire staircase out of action during the day when people expect to be using it.

well, it was out of normal office hours, but it proves that some people like the OP don't get that "office hours" don't mean anything for many of us and the working day finishes when your work is done, not because the clock says so.

The cleaners put up ‘stairs being cleaned please use other stairs or lifts’ when they clean the stairs where I work

Sorry signs

I would be pissed off with people walking up and down the stairs while I was cleaning them and having to keep re-doing!

Not sure how you get around, the majority of employees working late though.

HiJenny35
people in the office are not leisurely having a jolly, they have work to do! what are you talking about.

The telling thing is that it seems to be perfectly ok for many here that tbe cleaner disrupts somebody else’s work (and waste 10 minutes if their time),but no for the / guys to disrupt her work and waste her time (about 5 min ).
IF you decide everyones work is worth the same, you‘ll have to do it all the way (and since the OP said that 10 minutes don’t matter - why fo hers? )

They may not have reported you. They may simply have requested clarification re future schedules and expectations.

YABU to assume they should add ten minutes to their activity diverting to the other stairs.

So if you had just mopped the floor, you'd be cool with someone walking all over it?

Yes. As pp have said you're doing maintenance, not creating a sparkling show home. It's a minor irritation maybe but the building is in use so it's not going to stay clean for long. What's the time limit on this anyway? At what point after the stairs have been cleaned is it OK to walk on them again?

myself2020
hold on, who is the client here? Who is paying whom to do a service?

The cleaner is not here as a favour, as any supplier the client is right to complain if something is not satisfactory. Same way their own clients will complain if they are not happy with the service.

It's not looking down at anyone. If you are unhappy in a restaurant, you let them know, it doesn't mean you feel superior, just that you are the client...

So if you had just mopped the floor, you'd be cool with someone walking all over it?

I wouldn't be happy to see customers pull off the pile of tshirts I've just spent 10 minutes to organise neatly, but that's part of the job I am afraid.

Most people would rather be home doing something else than stuck in the office after "office hours", they are not staying just to annoy a cleaner

"I wouldn't be happy to see customers pull off the pile of tshirts I've just spent 10 minutes to organise neatly, but that's part of the job I am afraid. "

Really?

So because it's "part of the job" that makes it ok?

You have very low standards for how people should act in a polite society.

I can't be arsed reading the whole thread. But a detour of five minutes to the other stairs could mean being ten minutes late for a meeting. When your day often consists of back to back meetings including after the offical working day has ended, this would be very annoying and inconvenient, even rude. I'd have used the stairs but apologised to the cleaner.

Our cleaners are contractors but we have the same ones all the time and they're around all day so we tend to get to know them and have a chat. I imagine it wasn't a case of senior management "reporting" the cleaner but wondering if there had been some new system in place whereby stairs are being closed for cleaning and it's ended up getting back to the cleaner's manager. The idea of a senior exec bothering to "report" a cleaner for asking them to use different stairs seems unlikely, I doubt it would even occur to them.

We often have toilets closed for cleaning but there are plenty of others we can use so that's not an issue.

Why are you cleaning when people are still in the building? Get a very early morning shift or late shift. Day cleaning is pants work in an office.

evilharpy there's a lot of conjecture in your post.

Really?

So because it's "part of the job" that makes it ok?

well in this example if people can't access the tshirts to try them, they won't buy them so how is the business supposed to run exactly?
If they pull things out to destroy the place, you can ask them to leave, but paying customers, why on earth would you stop them from buying?

It's ok because it makes sense, how hard is it to understand?

Get a very early morning shift or late shift.

to be fair, there can be people in my office from 6am to midnight (not the same ones), so it's impossible in most places to find them empty unless you go at 3am.

and that's assuming it's not one of those call centres that are opened 24h a day, they exist too.

@IAmAlwaysLikeThis

And since when can a cleaner tell anyone outside of the cleaning staff what to do? They weren’t ordering her around. They were belittling her. They didn’t initiate an interaction with her. They got on with their job. She stroked out of her circle, to tell them what to do. That’s not on. She has her own line manager and her own chain to work up; that’s where she should take her complaints.

Her job is to clean without disrupting the workplace. Their job required them to go down to a different floor from their office. Neither party needed to speak to the other. They weren’t mucking up the stairs; they hadn’t been out getting all muddy. The stairs aren’t closed during cleaning, and are completely available for use. If they had come and shoved her out the way, or told her off for mopping to stairs then they would be the ones out of line, but they didn’t. She is the one who took it upon herself to tell them what to do, and she can’t do that.

OP, if you have an issue with people using the stairs while you are working then speak to your manager about closing them but with a building that size, it just isn’t practical. The stairs will have people walking on them as soon as they are clean and you will need to clean them again the next day, but that’s the job.

IAmAlwaysLikeThis conjecture how? Because I don't know whether the two men actually reported the cleaner? No I don't. But I'm making assumptions based on my experience of senior management. Of all the directors I know where I work, and that's quite a few, I just can't see it occuring to any of them to report a cleaner for asking them not to use the stairs, but I can see them mentioning to someone else that the stairs were closed and wondering if that was a new thing.