Are you being told to clean toilets at work?

[noblegiraffe]

If cleaning toilets wasn’t previously anywhere near your job description?

It’s being claimed on another thread that this is just part of the new normal, everyone is pitching in. I’m not convinced.

YABU - I’m being asked to clean toilets

YANBU - I’m not being asked to clean toilets

If you are, are you ok with it?

So this is someone else having a shit, leaving the toilet in a mess, then walking off and leaving you to clean it during your lunch break. Not because you need to use the toilet, just so that someone else can cover it in shit or piss ready for your next 'break'. Just no. I'm already putting my life at risk by being in close contact with 30 families I cant control, with the government telling me I'm not allowed to protect myself like everyone else at work is. They can fuck off if I'm getting any closer to other people's bodily fluids.

Nobody particularly enjoys it but it’s accepted that it’s needed
@Schuyler but I don’t accept it’s needed. I accept cleaning needs to happen. Not that teachers need to do it. Very bad use of resources.

I have a TA with me most of the time. Neither of us are cleaning the children's toilets.
If it is deemed necessary by the powers-that-be, then they are going to have to fund it.
This is a once in a generation pandemic. That is exactly why people (teachers in this case) shouldn't be put at even greater risk than they already are. I mean, if shops aren't even allowing people to use the loos in the first place...

We are asked to clean the staff toilet before and after use at work

when one cleans, the other is with the children!
@YewHedge can’t you (or anyone else) see what bad use of resources this is? Teachers and TAs are employed to help children learn. If they are cleaning, they aren’t doing this. Cleaning staff should be doing cleaning, with more hours paid for if necessary. Taking staff away from teaching/supporting learning is ridiculous.

@cardibach

Teachers are a resource that is already in school, so it costs nothing to put them to work cleaning. Cleaners would have to be funded with new money that would have to come from somewhere- probably cuts to teachers and TAs.

Taking on 4 cleaners at £10 per hour would cost £1600 per week or £83,000 a year! That would mean 3 teachers losing their jobs, which I'm sure no-one would want.

Union helped a sn schools highlight the school an additional hca/nurse.
Prior to this It was the given that school staff would administer medication. Because they had all been trained, instead of the nurse/hca on site once the days meds had been measured, it would be a ta, assuming the nurse had made it in if not ta’s.
It didn’t just include meds but various feed systems, physio and countless other things they simply were qualified to do so to begin with.
But when times were hard you took one for the team with pressure from slt and other colleagues. It had gone on for years with everyone just sucking it up.

And regardless of the workplaces some simply abhor you trying to do your job. They will publicly shout you down for not being in the team spirit. One of the reasons why many quit in the end.

Cleaners would have to be funded with new money that would have to come from somewhere
Yep. As I said, the Government needs to fund this.

And fuck off with your "put to work." We're not fucking donkeys.

At the moment, our school toilets are cleaned once a day, after school (despite being assured it would be done by cleaning staff/caretaker more often than that). That's the way it is - if anyone picks up an infection from using them, then I'm afraid that's one of the risks parents have to weigh up before deciding it is safe to send their children in (which is optional at the moment).
Come September, if attendance is compulsory, the Government will need to fund it, if they deem it important.

There is no magic money tree to fund these cleaners. I’m not saying it’s ideal. Many public sector workers are taking on additional tasks solely due to the current situation.

There is no magic money tree to fund these cleaners. And yet, there seems to be!
However, fine. If it's not deemed important enough, it won't get done. And the Government can bear the responsibility of any consequences.

There is no magic money tree to fund these cleaners.

But millions has been pledged for catch-up tutors, and a couple of billion for crumbling school buildings.

It seems we’re back to the magic money tree argument after Rishi has managed to shake it for so many other causes.

it costs nothing to put them to work
Ummm, yes it does, @FishyDuck. There’s the opportunity cost that they are not doing work related to teaching/learning during time they might be cleaning, so that work won’t be done. Again, you can’t add unpaid hours.

FishyDuck

Taking on 4 cleaners at £10 per hour would cost £1600 per week or £83,000 a year! That would mean 3 teachers losing their jobs, which I'm sure no-one would want.

Yet they found £10,000 per MP to set up from home.
They found resources to fund tutors.
They found resources to buy laptops for disadvantaged pupils (still haven't seen one)
They found millions to piss up the wall for a fucked up track and trace system that still doesn't work.

And the list goes on.

Yet we have jumped up know it alls that think teachers should be cleaning the pupils toilets.

Genuine question, what do teachers of MN actually want to see happen? The threads on here do not reflect my real life experience with teachers. All the teachers I know have grumbled at various things (and rightly so!) but have rolled their sleeves up. I get the feeling there are some teachers on here who’d prefer tiny bubbles of children or even no school at all.
Not every profession has access to a plethora of PPE, many of us are doing risky activities because our jobs are riskier now, many of us are cleaning and doing things we wouldn’t usually.
I understand totally that shielding staff are anxious and absolutely should be fully protected. For everyone else, a risk assessment should be completed, of course.
You cannot shrug your shoulders and say the government will have to find money. That’s not an answer right now. We all know education should have been prioritised long ago but it wasn’t and we cannot go back in time. We can only work with what we have now....which is even less money. Many public sector and charities and businesses thinks their area is worse affected and therefore, they need the additional funding. We have to pull together for a while.

We are a small school. We can't afford to pay for more cleaner hours, nor would it work logistically. In September, our teaching staff will be teaching full timetables and covering break or lunch, with one 20 minute break. They could clean after the children leave, but that's when the cleaners are in anyway. So cleaning during the school day will be done by me (Deputy) and the Head as we have fewer lessons. Not instead of our other work, of course. As well as. That should surely please even the union-haters.

Haenow

I get the feeling there are some teachers on here who’d prefer tiny bubbles of children or even no school at all.

Maybe you need to re read those threads.

@noblegiraffe

There is no magic money tree to fund these cleaners.

But millions has been pledged for catch-up tutors, and a couple of billion for crumbling school buildings.

It seems we’re back to the magic money tree argument after Rishi has managed to shake it for so many other causes.

You think funds should be prioritised for cleaning. That’s fine, your opinion. Education is not the only public sector org that has been affected. I do not agree with the way this government have prioritised funds but there needs to be some equality.

@FrippEnos

Haenow

I get the feeling there are some teachers on here who’d prefer tiny bubbles of children or even no school at all.

Maybe you need to re read those threads.

I said some and I specifically put in bold because I knew someone would pick it. I don’t think that is unfair, in the same way some non teachers seem to think we should all be in lockdown until a vaccine is found.

@FrippEnos

The government cannot meet every demand for money from every group. The examples of spending you mention are all absolutely essential. And BTW, MPs were not given £10,000- the money was to allow their staff who are the last point of call for millions of people for issues from benefits to health, to set up at home.

It is not essential to spend limited resources on tens of thousands of cleaners when there is a resource already in the building perfectly able to clean the toilets.

Teachers should be given the requisite cleaning products and told to clean!

MN teachers, as far as I can see, are doing stuff that lazy teachers are supposed to be dodging like live lessons, phonecalls home, being in school teaching, cleaning toilets, planning and uploading resources as instructed by their individual schools.

It’s fucking insulting to the teachers of MN to paint them as ‘unwilling to roll their sleeves up’ when they have been doing precisely that.

Just putting my two pence in. I ran a cleaning company and nobody should be using chemicals of any kind at work without inductions and training. I know that sounds ridiculous because everyone can bleach a toilet but if someone got something in their eye, for instance, and they hadn't had an induction and training, the company could be sued. Wiping over with an anti-bac wipe is one thing, using cleaning materials is a whole other kettle of fish. I had to have chemical training certificates before I was allowed to use toilet cleaner!

Teachers should be given the requisite cleaning products and told to clean!
I'll say again: Nope.

fishy what job do you do? I honestly don't think I would have time to clean any loos with full teaching day 8.30-3.45 and half hour for lunch (usually spent getting afternoons lessons ready)

noble where did you hear this? I'm not too special to clean loos but don't think it's hygienic to clean loos then go in a classroom and have 30 kids stuffed into a small room? I would want to be in different clothes for that. Surely germs would spread quickly with teachers cleaning loos in their normal clothes then heading straight back to class?

So much hate for teachers. It's depressing. I taught some students today despite it being end of term because I wanted to see them. We're not all lazy f###ers!!

I clean the toilet and sink taps etc and anything else I have touched inc light switches and handles after I have used it and all other staff members do the same. I don't think it's unreasonable to do this. Visiting clients are not allowed to use any facilities apart from in the case of emergency which so far has not happened. I guess if it did then someone would be expected to wipe around after them but we have full PPE and cleaning products supplied some no issue?