AIBU about cleaners at work?

[TheBeesKnee]

Office environment. Every day at 12 just as people start getting their lunch and eating the cleaner comes in and starts cleaning. She will wipe down the counters around you while you're trying to cut up food etc. It's distracting and I feel bad "making a mess" while she cleans.

I don't understand why she can't come later. This can't be normal.

Not normal. Ask management to change the timing if she is cleaning facilities meant for lunch preparation, during lunchtime.

Ask management to get involved.

Our cleaner likes to save “energy” so even if your in the toilet she turns off the light and the hand dryer.... even if you shout up, that your using the facilities she “ignores” you

she’s been told multiple times but apparently we all need to be more environmental friendly

She’s now on her last warning ⚠️

Is the cleaner lonely? Ours works in a large team as the only cleaner and she takes her break in the lunch room when a group of staff do, they all have lunch together. It can be a lonely job for a social person to be around so many people but not a part of the main focus of the team.

Can you change the time you have lunch? Go from 1-2pm instead? And leave a mess that won't get cleaned up till 12 the next day 😁

Our cleaners start work just as we're leaving, they wash the tiled floors so you kinda ice skate to the door plus they clean the toilets just as we are getting ready to leave but I really like them, they are so nice just really annoying

44happinessischocolate

She cleans 12 until long after we go. I've only ever stayed until 6pm and she was still there. I don't know if she's just trying to look busy but it is very off-putting.

So inconvenient when the help gets in the way. Makes one very uncomfortable to see the working class doing their thing, right there in front of you.

Oh I worked in an office where this was a problem too! The cleaner, a grumpy old thing, would start the kitchen clean at 11am then try and stop people going in until about 1! ("The floor is wet, come back later", shouting at people's attempt to open the door to get lunch from the fridge or the microwaves!).
It was absolutely bonkers. I complained about it to colleagues after starting and they all agreed it was crap (it was in a fairly stressful job where lunch just had to be grabbed around meetings and team calls, not shift work or predictable)... But no one had asked the facility management to look into it.
I complained after being shouted out one morning at about 11.30... turned out she was meant to be cleaning it before the office opened up but was starting 2hrs later every day.. so us on the last floor should have had a cleaned working kitchen by 11am.. but that's when she was starting! Ended up getting her fired but if she'd been a bit nicer I wouldn't have said anything.

Could you talk to her? Chat with her as a colleague just as you would to resolve any other minor workplace issue.

So inconvenient when the help gets in the way. Makes one very uncomfortable to see the working class doing their thing, right there in front of you.

I used to be an office cleaner and this such a patronising, disingenuous remark.

The OP's complaint has got nothing to do with not wanting to see the cleaner and everything to do with the fact that it's impractical and inconvenient to clean a kitchen at fucking lunchtime when people are in the middle of making their lunch. When I was a cleaner OF COURSE I didn't do the kitchens at lunchtimes because it's massively impractical and inefficient.

Makes one very uncomfortable to see the working class doing their thing, right there in front of you.

There's always one.

OP perhaps she's on a set rotate, I'm sure a chat with facilities would help clear it up.

Rota

Makes one very uncomfortable to see the working class doing their thing, right there in front of you.

Pretty sure this was sarcasm

Well yes obviously it was sarcasm, pp pointlessly turning a small logistical challenge into OP lording it over lower-paid members of staff

I used to be an office cleaner. Went in at 6 am. Finished by 8 just as the staff were coming in
Kitchen and toilets were done first to allow floor to dry. I didnt want footprints on them.
My friend has a job between 6pm and 8pm.
Its very unusual for the cleaner to be there in office hours.
Can you ask her why she does it then? Seems stupid.

How can she possibly be cleaning from 12 until gone 6 in the same area of an office?? (Presumably it IS in the same area or you wouldn't know she was there?)

Cleaners where I used to work used to start mopping the floor between 4:30 and 5, just as everyone was heading out. The amount of times I went flying!

Our cleaners clean the stairs at 9am just as everyone is trying to get up to the offices

I worked a long time ago in a large office block we had a lovely cleaner very friendly someone you could talk to if you had a problem intact mothered us all and another lady who made in the morning teas, coffee bacon sandwiches etc. In the afternoon she made cakes cream horns were her speciality. Happy days we didn't treat them any different than the rest of the staff.

Our cleaners clean non stop from 8:30-5:00. They literally do not stop moving- wiping down glass doors, wiping the kitchen down, loading dishwashers, unloading them, mopping the floor if someone drops something (and doesn't clean it up- seen this happen!), then they go around picking up people's empty cups, and then clean the bathrooms. They must be told to just continually clean at least one thing every fifteen mins. It looks exhausting. But we all appreciate their hard work because there's a lot of slobs in this office!

Our cleaner comes in at 7. I'm convinced she then reads a book for a bit before doing some cleaning. The place is already clean so I'm really sure what's she's doing.

Ask management to ask her to get out of the kitchen between 12 and 2.

It's not unusual to have a cleaner on site all day, but no need for them to be in the way. A bit of common sense doesn't hurt, same way as the IT team refraining to restart the main servers in the middle of the working day.

@FrauHaribo
same way as the IT team refraining to restart the main servers in the middle of the working day

Wait... you were serious?

Puzzledandpissedoff

How can she possibly be cleaning from 12 until gone 6 in the same area of an office??

She mostly wipes things and lobs mugs from the dishwasher into the cupboard. You can often hear things breaking.

UnderperformingSeal

sorry, I don't get it. Am I serious that our IT department do the work that would interfere with the work of everyone else out of hours/ weekends? When else are they supposed to do it?