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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are you being told to clean toilets at work?

549 replies

noblegiraffe · 13/07/2020 14:03

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?

OP posts:
FishyDuck · 14/07/2020 12:46

The majority of offices have not returned yet @noblegiraffe, which perhaps explains the vote. DH is due to go back in September and his company have been very clear that all staff will be expected to contribute to the enhanced cleaning protocols.

And this is a company where DH earns over £100k and there are staff who earn close to £500k, so it's not like teachers are being singled out!

MarshaBradyo · 14/07/2020 12:48

Fishy they will have to clean loos after a lot of other people use them not just after personal use?

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/07/2020 12:48

which perhaps explains the vote.

Or the other way of explaining the vote is that it’s right and you’re wrong...

OP posts:
FishyDuck · 14/07/2020 12:50

@MarshaBradyo

Yes, there will be a total system to ensure that the toilets are being cleaned every hour. So staff on £500k a year will be expected to clean up after others- why should teachers be any different?

Mistressiggi · 14/07/2020 12:52

Well let's reword that - teachers happy to clean up staff toilets after using them - a spray and a wipe perhaps? Teachers happy to clean up student toilets used by possibly 500 girls a day - it's exactly the same isn't it? Or not.

MarshaBradyo · 14/07/2020 12:53

Blimey Fishy I might have to ask friends if it’s the same in their City roles.

Actually now I remember they said increased cleaning service and the place was gleaming. So not the same. I find that nuts, surely they can dig around for funds in their high earning place too. Up to them to not spend the money and scrub I suppose.

starfishmummy · 14/07/2020 12:55

I'm no longer working but in my last job tjere was huge fuss made about cleaning materials (had to be the ones allroved by the buildings management) and whether untrained people were allowed to use them. Guess thats all gone out the window now!!

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/07/2020 12:55

No one seriously believes that people on £500k will be on a bog rota. Don’t be daft.

OP posts:
SengaStrawberry · 14/07/2020 12:55

Not relevant as I am not working now and if and when I do it will be from home but unless I am employed as a cleaner I will not be cleaning toilets. I will clean after I’ve used it but general toilet cleaning - no chance. They want a cleaner, they can pay for one.

MarshaBradyo · 14/07/2020 12:58

No one seriously believes that people on £500k will be on a bog rota. Don’t be daft.

They seem quite straight with the post. Fact or fiction who knows

FishyDuck · 14/07/2020 12:58

@Marshabradyo

It's not about money- it's about minimising the number of people in the building. 5 extra cleaners are 5 people who don't need to be there when you have an office full of staff able to clean.

Aragog · 14/07/2020 12:59

Why do the toilets need extra cleaning? We're told over and over the infection rates are so low, children don't transmit etc.

Regular and more frequent cleaning of surfaces and toilets, plus children having more frequent hand washing comes from the Government. Hence, not overly convinced on this idea children don't transmit - seeing as the Government's own guidance suggests its possible through what they are asking to happen in schools.

SengaStrawberry · 14/07/2020 12:59

Why the bloody hell should teachers be cleaning toilets? Ridiculous.

Pimpernella · 14/07/2020 12:59

I've been cleaning loos for our primary bubble which is fine in strange and new times but going forward for who knows how long, I'm not keen.

Despite constant reminders the children do not flush after themselves and school toilets do not have seat lids . Consequently, I have to flush and presumably those fluids whoosh around the cubicle all over the clothes I wear all day. It's grim and not very safe for me either.

MarshaBradyo · 14/07/2020 13:01

Fishy cleaners could keep their distance and clean wearing gloves and masks. Even my cleaner has returned!, the risk is very low. I think they are crazy to be so risk adverse as to clean loos.

SengaStrawberry · 14/07/2020 13:01

Plus what are workplaces going to do if people just don’t do it? Are they going to have a bog inspector going in with one of those UV lamps that show up germs?

SengaStrawberry · 14/07/2020 13:04

5 extra cleaners are 5 people who don't need to be there when you have an office full of staff able to clean.

But they do need to be there, because the other staff there are not cleaners.

I am very cynical too about someone on £500k having to take part in the bog cleaning rota. Sure they are. They probably don’t even clean their own bog. If I earned £500k I probably wouldn’t

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/07/2020 13:04

They seem quite straight with the post.

Given that they are demonstrably on the wind-up, I’d take anything they said with hefty pinch of salt.

I mean, £500k and cleaning toilets? It’d be blokes on that money and they’d have no problem knowing their worth and saying sod off.

OP posts:
MarshaBradyo · 14/07/2020 13:05

I think it’s highly fanciful tbh

CallmeAngelina · 14/07/2020 13:05

Please wash your own cup and plate up after use: entirely reasonable. No problem.
Due to Covid-19, please use the wipes provided and leave the loo as you would like to find it, after your personal use: also reasonable. No problem.
Go into the student toilets after several hundred uses, wee spills and poo crumbs smeared onto who-knows-which surfaces, no PPE provided (buy your own? Only if you know which type is H&S approved). Entirely unreasonable and NO teacher or TA should be doing this, whether or not they have the time. BIG problem.

SimonJT · 14/07/2020 13:06

[quote FishyDuck]@Marshabradyo

It's not about money- it's about minimising the number of people in the building. 5 extra cleaners are 5 people who don't need to be there when you have an office full of staff able to clean.[/quote]
They obviously do need additional cleaners, by forcing colleagues to become cleaners they are both being incredibly tight and denying five people a wage.

Hardbackwriter · 14/07/2020 13:07

I can believe that the guy earning £500k will wipe round the sinks on the first day back, as a big 'look how we're all in this together!' gesture. I just do not believe that he'll be doing it a month or even a week later.

canigooutyet · 14/07/2020 13:08

@FishyDuck

This idea that teachers will be rushing for the exits if we expect them to do additional cleaning is a nonsense! There are no jobs for the millions of newly unemployed as it is, never mind for thousands of former teachers to take up!

And as this thread has demonstrated, the teachers walking out over cleaning toilets may we find themselves cleaning in any putative new job anyway.

It wont just because of cleaning toilets.

If they weren't being shit on from great heights and had been from the beginning then those ex staff would have already been lining up.
Ask yourself why not.

Some should be happy that overnight they all had their role changed and carried. They could have easily said throughout we are educators not carers sort out your own damn childcare.

Yet they didn't. They ploughed through being moaned at by parents for not doing their jobs. Which there were carers.

Then the bubbles started wha wha bubbles.

Throughout their has been an undertone of schools = care. Yes they have a responsibility of care, but ultimately a lot of the things they do they don't have. to.

Many teachers stick around because they are passionate about what they do. There is nothing stopping them saying sod it, going back to the private sector and I don't mean education.

As for no jobs - many have also gained employment in other countries as well as here. It's not just us that outsource to other countries, other countries outsource to us.

Teachers aren't immune from this and isn't one of the top things that leads people to quit - job satisfaction. Or it is Stress?

canigooutyet · 14/07/2020 13:24

This isn't the first time I have mentioned this on the site.

My DD is an office manager at one of massive City buildings.

I might give her a laugh later and suggest there's no cleaning and it's all getting done by the execs and stuff. Although she is also a fan of those clean up your own shit posters, and finds this does the job so the cleaning crew don't have to clean other people's shit up.

The ceo, directors etc like her approach and agreed before CV clean up your own shit. Yes we have cleaners, but they aren't your skivvies. They became involved because someone took offence to the idea of cleaning up after yourself 🤣The comparison to cleaners was made - not like we are asking you clean up after everyone like the cleaners.

In an office it makes sense. If you work in retail and there is no cleaning crew, you know it's your role. If you own a company its your role to ensure it gets done safely.

SimonJT · 14/07/2020 13:58

@canigooutyet I usually work in a pickle shaped building, no one there is cleaning the loo etc apart from the buildings cleaning team.