Cleaner told me off

[PremiumRaa]

I usually get to work early to get ready for the day as it's easier for me after a long ish commute. The work toilets are separate large cubicles with a toilet and sink in each one so I take my make up bag into work and usually spend 15-20 mins in one before I go into the office.

This morning I got ready at work as usual and as I left the cleaner was leaning on the main door waiting for me to come out so he could go in and clean. I had left some rubbish (an empty paper bag and a napkin) on top of the bin as the bin lid wasn't working when I pressed the foot pedal.

The cleaner looked annoyed as I left and then went into the cubicle. I had only walked a few steps down the corridor before he called me back shouting "lady lady!" And then beckoned me into the toilet, gestured at the rubbish saying "this is you - these are clean toilets" and picked up the rubbish and put it on top of my handbag then picked up some paper towels from the floor and stuffed them onto the top of my bag as well whilst complaining.

I was so shocked and embarrassed I took the rubbish and walked away and put it in another bin. I felt really stressed like he's going to report me to building services or something. The toilet was clean it was just the rubbish on top of the bin and I think he was annoyed waiting outside for a while. WABU?

Because it's never just one thing - it's ten or twenty or more people a week thinking "this can't hurt, it's only a bit of paper or a small spill or a bit of mess" only it's not when it's people constantly leaving stuff because "the cleaner will do it"

It's fucking disrespectful and annoying.

If there is a female using the female toilet for any reason at all then the male cleaner needs to wait. Simple as.

Handing the towels from the floor was out of order. It's his job to pick them up not the OPs.

a) a paper bag doesn't and shouldn't go in the sanitary bin, so it's irrelevant that the bin wouldn't open. It's usually a safety measure to indicate the bin is full.
b) how was the cleaner to know what it was? It was on top of a sanitary bin.
c) his behaviour was perfectly appropriate in response to someone who had not taken her own rubbish with her and had placed it on top of a bin for soiled waste (so it may well have been soiled waste as far as he could tell.
d) the sanitary bins are usually not the responsibility of the cleaners. They are collected specifially for disposal.

You were being unreasonable, OP. Stop trying to justify what you did and accept this.

Well you were being unreasonable to leave it on the top of the toilet, but he was being unreasonable to stuff it into your bag. He is paid to put it into the bin, whether he thinks he should have to or not.

Still rude, you couldn't be bothered to take your rubbish with you nor put it in the bin.

If you didn't like the fact you had to touch the lid of the bin, then you could have seen the cleaner (by waiting you would've done this) and then given him the rubbish in his rubbish bag/container etc, or asked him to take it, or you could take it with you.

Agreed with @ClaudiaWankleman he was rude to stuff the rubbish in your bag. I hope you don't report him for doing this.

I'm pleased he pulled you up on this. Cleaners have a hard enough job as it is, especially the ones at workplaces.

Why, when you won’t respond to the very first post asking why you didn’t lift the bin lid and dispose of your rubbish?

Why do you think the cleaner should have to pick up your rubbish that you’re too lazy to put in the bin?

No he isn't. He's paid to clean the offices. The fact that there are too many inconsiderate people who don't use the bins provided is not his fault. Put your rubbish in the CORRECT bin (which is not the sanitary bin).

Unless he has been in before and knew she dropped them and left them.

Bizarre choice tbh.

If you don’t want to touch the bin it could just go in your bag until you found an open bin?

Maybe he was having a bad day so blew up, but it was poor form.

chin up, now you know for next time. You’ll be fine.

But why didn't you just lift the bin lid up????

Cleaners are there to clean the office, not pick up rubbish after adults who think they’re too good to throw their own rubbish away.

There are so many scummy people in this country who think it’s acceptable to leave toilets in disgusting condition because the people cleaning them are either ethnic minorities or women or both.

I hope there is a special place in hell for them where they have to clean other people’s shit.

As the UK’s biggest cleaning company says:

Responsibility may be down to you as the employer, but that doesn’t mean staff can’t do their bit to ensure the environment is as hygienic and pleasant as possible.

YABU surely you have a bin or wastepaper basket under or near your desk? Why didn't you take your rubbish there?
Rubbish goes IN bins, not on top of them. And actually a cleaner's job is to clean. not to pick up after you.

No, he isn’t. He’s not employed to wait on lazy, spoilt people who imagine putting their rubbish in the bin can be outsourced to the cleaning staff.

If the rubbish wasn’t snotty or sani waste, most people would take it and put it in the normal bin not leave it on top of the sani bin the toilet.

it’s grim going into a loo with waste piled on top of the sani bin because you don’t know what it is. Or people who stuff their used sanitary towels into the handle of the bins 🤢🤢

Kind of begs the question - why were you ferrying an empty paper bag around with you, and why, when you finally decided to dispose of it did a sanitary bin in the toilets seem like a good choice.

You are being unreasonable.

If everyone left just a paper bag and napkin the loos would be a bloody tip. It's sickening at times how people leave public facilities!

Why should other users or the cleaning staff pick up after you?

perhaps - but OP says there was another bin, which she miraculously was able to use after her rubbish was given back to her after leaving it out.

you left your (Sanitary?) rubbish on top of a bin, when there was a perfectly useable bin near, for someone else to clear up.

you're still being unreasonable.

No he isn't paid to put other people's rubbish in the bin....

Thank you all for the replies.

I know this isn't really allowed but this is a reverse - the cleaner is my partner. He told me what happened and worried he was unreasonable but I've shown him this thread and he feels a lot better.

He'd obviously reached the end of his tether, which may or may not have been related to someone spending 20 minutes in the cubicle he needed to clean, but, yes, put your rubbish in the bin.

I'm Team Cleaner.

FFS. Why? Why waste everyone’s time to
make your boyfriend feel better?

And it was so obviously drafted in a way to make the other person look bad that I assumed you were a troll. That’s why reverses are a pain!

Why bother make it a reverse? That's so so weird and unnecessary. You would have had the same types of replies!