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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:
LividLaughLovely · 13/07/2020 17:14

@Sataypan odfo.

Is anyone asking you to clean up teenagers’ piss?

This would not even be an issue in a male dominated profession.

Sr1nkleOverSalad · 13/07/2020 17:14

We are all perfectly capable of wiping a toilet seat without touching it. Needs no special training or PPE.

Sr1nkleOverSalad · 13/07/2020 17:16

I think there is rather a lot of snobbery re cleaning.Hmm.

tadjennyp · 13/07/2020 17:17

Do you all have two people in your classes, Sr1nkle? Because secondary don't, and that is the issue. Can't be in two places at once. Toilets are nowhere near my classroom. Happy to do it, otherwise.

ComeOnBabyPopMyBubble · 13/07/2020 17:18

I'm a TA. Teachers and TA's are doing the MSA's jobs so the MSA's clean toilets and classrooms at lunch. We clean the classrooms during the day. The cleaners come and do classrooms and toilets again after school.

At the moment it works.

Ragwort · 13/07/2020 17:19

Yes, I clean the toilet at work - always have done, I manage a very small shop and we don't employ cleaners ... doesn't bother me at all.

Rudolphian · 13/07/2020 17:21

Not cleaning the toilets.
But wiping down chairs/ door handles etc as and when needed

Witchend · 13/07/2020 17:21

I haven't cleaned toilets in work, but over the last few months I have done several lots of cleaning (pasta sauce smashed jars today for example).
I am an office manager and this is not part of my normal role.

Soubriquet · 13/07/2020 17:22

Nope

I work for a supermarket though so there are plenty of cleaners available as standard

Inertia · 13/07/2020 17:23

The difference between teachers cleaning in the middle of doing their job and accountants/office workers cleaning in the middle of their job is that accounts and files can be safely locked away in a cupboard and left unsupervised. It's not the teachers creating the special circumstances, it's the children - you can't leave 30 five-year-olds unsupervised. I work with a TA so one of us can supervise while the other cleans up if required, but that means that teaching and learning opportunities are reduced. A teacher or TA on their own in a bubble can't leave the children unsupervised.

Sr1nkleOverSalad · 13/07/2020 17:23

We have 2 adults per bubble. SLT in secondaries can surely organise a rota if they have less. Staggered/ longer break times with loo visit before or after and adult doing it but still getting their break?Primary heads have been amazing with their creativity. Our head is constantly one step ahead with a plan for everything after very little notice. She cleans too.Don’t know how she does it. Frankly I think all heads deserve a massive pat on the back.

These are unusual times and call for a huge amount of adaptability and creativity.

Evelefteden · 13/07/2020 17:23

[quote LividLaughLovely]@Sataypan odfo.

Is anyone asking you to clean up teenagers’ piss?

This would not even be an issue in a male dominated profession.[/quote]
I’ve cleaned up male piss. It fucking stinks. Why is ok for a bar steward or swimming teacher ( both male and female) but not ok for a school teacher? What makes teachers so special?

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 13/07/2020 17:31

Our head is constantly one step ahead with a plan for everything after very little notice. She cleans too.

Another female head. Still waiting for a male head who is turning his hand to bog cleaning.

I remember ages ago on a thread about how some husbands were really good at pulling their weight around the house and someone asked ‘but who cleans the toilet?’. It seemed that despite other tasks like cooking being done by either partner, toilet cleaning fell more often to the women.

OP posts:
MurrayTheDemonicTalkingSkull · 13/07/2020 17:33

[quote FishyDuck]@inertia

The question I'd ask is should schools be spending money on extra cleaners instead of teaching and learning? I'd say they shouldn't, particularly when there is a resource already in the building in the form of teachers who are perfectly able to undertake additional cleaning.[/quote]
But the “resource” you’re talking about isn’t free and teacher time isn’t infinite. If I’m spending time cleaning, that’s time I can’t be using to plan/mark/deliver lessons, etc. I’m in Scotland, so our contracts are a little different, but there is a maximum number of hours I work in a week. If I have more work than can be completed in that 35 hours, I am within my rights to ask what I should drop. In this case, of course it would be the cleaning.

I have no objection to cleaning up after myself and could even be persuaded to give desks, door handles, etc, in my classroom a wee wipe, but it makes no sense to ask me to do this instead of the actual duties that I’m trained and paid for.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 13/07/2020 17:34

What makes teachers so special?

Given that after 354 votes, 72% of respondents have said that no, they are not being asked to clean toilets, it seems odd to suggest that teachers would be in some way special not to be required to do it.

OP posts:
clairefrasier · 13/07/2020 17:34

we are being asked to wipe toilet after each personal use

Gwenhwyfar · 13/07/2020 17:35

People are confusing separate things here. Being asked to clean up after your own use is completely different to being asked to clean up after everyone. I don't think that's justified, except possibly in very small offices where it's not feasible to have the actual cleaners in every day.

GalesThisMorning · 13/07/2020 17:36

@noblegiraffe

I'm a primary teacher so yes I am cleaning toilets we take it in turns so everybody does it, even the head takes her turn.

Female headteacher I see. Anyone know of any male headteachers cleaning toilets?

I would imagine not many men are being asked to clean toilets as a new addition to their roles and responsibilities. Or being told to do it with gratitude.

I work in FE. We are not being asked to clean after our students, but possibly we might be when they return. I don't know how I would feel about it tbh. If I saw senior management pitching in I'd be more inclined to do it I suppose (except we've been told they will remain wfh for the foreseeable...)

FishyDuck · 13/07/2020 17:36

@noblegiraffe

Why on earth should headteachers be cleaning toilets? Heads are extraordinarily busy and they don't have time in the day- teachers do.

Asking heads to clean would be equivalent to expecting the CEO of Tesco to clean shops.

Em8725 · 13/07/2020 17:37

I’m in hospitality and we now have to clean the toilets. Nothing major just a quick wipe round and sanitising things like taps, door handles, locks, flushes etc.
It really doesn’t bother me as I’d do that before I use it anyway. I also do all the door handles in the building whilst on my rounds.

fodderbeet · 13/07/2020 17:37

i wish people could post if they've ever been a cleaner/someone responsible for toilets like in a pub, before they can comment here

Excellent - I've cleaned in holiday park night clubs and kids areas and have a small caravan site with a shower and toilet so I'm allowed to comment.

Everyone should be cleaning everything right now, and very nearly everyone is in my experience. Everyone I know is trying really hard in their own businesses to keep everyone safe, including cleaning toilets and constantly wiping stuff down.

Clean, clean and clean some more - there are far more people than toilets, so even in a school where teachers may have to occasionally do a little bit more than normal, every teacher won't need to be cleaning every toilet every day. This is one of those 'man the fuck up' moments where stuff needs doing so just crack on and do it.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 13/07/2020 17:38

Why on earth should headteachers be cleaning toilets?

Posters are reporting on this thread that their headteachers are cleaning toilets.

Heads are extraordinarily busy and they don't have time in the day- teachers do.

This is going to be an amazingly popular comment among teachers, I can just tell!

OP posts:
SlipperSwan · 13/07/2020 17:40

Why on earth should headteachers be cleaning toilets? Heads are extraordinarily busy and they don't have time in the day- teachers do.

Hahahaha. Teachers having time. haha. Honestly people on mumsnet are so ignorant.

ZombieLizzieBennet · 13/07/2020 17:43

@Pepperwort

While wearing school clothes is another good point.

This is a practical logistical point that deserves due consideration. I'm usually hot on class issues, but this needs all the British resentments and social crap taken out of it in order for decent, reasonable and fair arrangements to be organised.

It really is.

I myself am wfh so the issue hasn't arisen. But as the parent of a primary aged child, if there's enough of a risk from the toilets that they need cleaning multiple times a day, I'd be concerned about you coming out into the classroom, getting close to and potentially touching my child in the clothes you just cleaned in.

Gwenhwyfar · 13/07/2020 17:44

@Sr1nkleOverSalad

I think there is rather a lot of snobbery re cleaning.Hmm.
Nope. I've done cleaning work and might do so again. HOWEVER, if I'm in a job that does not normally include cleaning I won't do it because if I do it sets a precedent and it will always be people like me (female and at the bottom of the hierarchy) that it will fall on. If your job involves cleaning, fine carry on with it. If not, don't let yourself be exploited.