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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I'm an experienced highly qualified Early Years Educator and at work today at a creche I spent approx 3 hours deep cleaning as per current regs - I think this is neither sustainable nor desirable AIBU

225 replies

Germolenequeen · 23/07/2020 21:02

AS ABOVE

OP posts:
Cattiwampus · 23/07/2020 23:40

@Freddiefox

It’s not sustainable, and neither is the body of cleaning materials. In one month I’ve spent more on cleaning equipment than I do a whole year on art and craft.
And that’s a problem. If cleaning requires staff to buy their own products without reimbursement, it’s going to cost individuals a fortune.
Bella2020 · 23/07/2020 23:49

No, no-one should 'suck it up.' This attitude allows employers to get away with taking on the number of people really needed to do all the work across the organisation. Cleaners won't be needed eventually as employers will say the staff have shown they can do it themselves.

christinarossetti19 · 23/07/2020 23:55

"Cleaners won't be needed eventually as employers will say the staff have shown they can do it themselves."

Exactly.

ballsdeep · 23/07/2020 23:58

I'm an early years teacher and in September we have 20 minutes at each activity, whistle blows 🙄 and then all 94 children are to wash hands (in six sinks!) Can't see that lasting long after the first 20 mins! They would spend the whole day waiting to wash hands

fascinated · 23/07/2020 23:59

And what about fumes being breathed in by kids?

WeMarchOn · 24/07/2020 00:03

Cleaning? What cleaning? God forbid anyone getting their hands dirty esp a highly educated professional! 🙄

MummityMum · 24/07/2020 00:05

I'm with @Fascinated . Not keen on the amount of chemicals my kids are being exposed to. COVID is possibly less harmful to them in the longer term. Also I want those looking after my kids to have some energy left to actually look after them.

Socialdistancing · 24/07/2020 00:07

Yanbu. I am a teacher on the SLT and for the term we were back in school I spent half my lunchtime cleaning the loos and about an hour after school cleaning my classroom, the loos and our corridor. Our cleaning team is sparse as it is and we don’t have the money to pay for any more so for the foreseeable future this will be part of my job. It’s ridiculous but what other way is there?

pinkcarpet · 24/07/2020 00:07

Sounds ridiculous but what is the alternative? I'm a highly experienced finance professional yet I've had to spend the last 4 months also doing my best to be an early years educator and a cleaner, both thungs I would gladly pay someone else to do but couldn't. None of it is sustainable and the sooner we can gain some normality the better but it is not going to happen overnight and there isn't enough money in the pot to pay for everything. We all need to muddle through the next few months doing whatever we can to collectively help out

skeptile · 24/07/2020 00:11

I was reading that it has been suggested that one of the reasons children are spared severe Covid infection is cross immunity provided by other 'common' coronaviruses - on average kids have 12 colds a year! I'm very worried about the damage this endless cleaning is doing to their immune systems going forward.

Bupkis · 24/07/2020 01:27

Oh come on, we all have to do things beneath our pay grade.

Sorry this made me laugh ... I'm an Early Years Practitioner and got paid a lot more when I was a cleaner!

letsghostdance · 24/07/2020 01:57

For everyone concerned about their children's immune systems, it's unfortunately not about that. It's about the adults that have to work in the environment not being exposed to covid. Their right to being safe trumps (nonsense) concerns about breathing in cleaning chemicals.

Germolenequeen · 24/07/2020 02:27

We’re all having to do extra stuff this year. Suck it up, Buttercup. 2020 doesn’t care about your CV.

Maybe I should have elaborated - those 3 hours took me away from interacting with children which is what I'm employed to do.

  • I'm 57 don't give a crap about my bloody CV and am well used to hard graft and multi- tasking.

We have no cleaners on site - we are operating on a shoestring with the bare number of staff needed for ratios and cover for our (unpaid) lunch breaks.

I certainly don't work in this sector for the money or the glory - I do it because I genuinely love working with children - IMO you shouldn't be in the job otherwise 😏

As a previous pp said the children's immune systems with be shot to pieces too - they are constantly hand washing and hand sanitizing in addition to having toys whisked away to be disinfected the minute they put them down.

Hopefully balance will return at some stage 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:
Germolenequeen · 24/07/2020 02:37

Bupkis

Oh come on, we all have to do things beneath our pay grade.

Sorry this made me laugh ... I'm an Early Years Practitioner and got paid a lot more when I was a cleaner!

Exactly 🙄

OP posts:
Germolenequeen · 24/07/2020 02:38

Sailingblue

I think a good cleaning regime is important but I’d much rather have you playing with my child than spending 3 hours cleaning.

My point 100%

OP posts:
makingmammaries · 24/07/2020 03:00

What is the actual point of ‘deep cleaning’ when the virus only survives a few hours on surfaces?

Pixxie7 · 24/07/2020 03:36

Is this about the fact you have been asked to clean due to your own status or you don’t think it’s possible to maintain?

BwanaMakubwa · 24/07/2020 03:58

@ballsdeep

This is how you wash 94 children's hands in 6 sinks in 5 mins.

Each child knows that they are in group 1 or group 2. Each child knows which is "their" sink.
When whistle blows, group 1 children, 47 of them, line up 8 to each sink. Group 2 can sit on carpets and sing a hand washing song or similar.

The 47 children in their lines of 8 to a sink. First child in each line wets hands and puts on the liquid soap or rubs hands on bar soap. They then go to the back of the line with hands still soapy and begin rubbing the soap in. Second child gets soap on, moves to back of line, etc.

By the time child number 1 gets back to the front of their line, they have been rubbing soap in for more than 20 seconds and the second time they get to the sink they just need to rinse their hands off quickly. And so on for child 2. They then go off to their carpet or back to back of line as you wish, with a paper towel. Staff member has bin bag holding it open and children drop their towels in as they pass on their way to the carpet.

Group 1 now do their song, group 2 do the hand wash conga.

Transformed things as DC's school.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 24/07/2020 04:10

Hmm Most people don't get paid for lunch breaks. And lots of us work through them most days.

Toastie7 · 24/07/2020 05:36

I work in early years too and have been cleaning. Just wondering if any of you are being paid extra for the cleaning. I don't mind washing toys, wiping tables and door handles and even cleaning the toilet after the children, but we have also had to clean the building, even cleaning windows!

Thehop · 24/07/2020 05:49

I’m in a private nursery as a senior practitioner OP and working towards my degree. I’ll be on 10p over minimum wage for probably most of my career. I’m 40, and it’s hard but I really really want better outcomes for children.

We absolutely don’t do it for money because I earned more when I worked at McDonald’s whilst at college.

This deep cleaning takes a member of staff. It’s just more pressure on an already very stretched setting. I’m not sure we’ll be here next year and it’s a crying shame because we’re bloody good. Ultimately, it’s young children that will suffer because independent provision is disappearing, as governments push to get EY into schools.

Thehop · 24/07/2020 05:50

Oh and we’re not getting our cleaner back because we’ve shown we can do it. In and amongst the paperwork we have and....you know....actually playing with children.

sheepisheep · 24/07/2020 05:59

Isn't it funny that the majority of workplaces being forced to clean regularly are also the workplaces most often worked in by women?

Can't help but feel that if banks or offices were affected to the same degree as nurseries and schools, there would be more support from the government for providing cleaning materials and manpower.... Hmm

thefishthatcouldwish · 24/07/2020 06:14

No it isn't sustainable long. Yes it is a faff. Yes it takes away from what you are paid for. At the moment though it is necessary.

rwalker · 24/07/2020 06:34

It's unprecedented times it's whats needed to make your work environment function.
It's all hands to the pump at our place even those superior people who better than the rest of us and menial task are clearly beneath them are mucking in.