Annoyed with the office cleaner

[VerySweatyBetty1]

Here’s a thing:

I've suspected for some time that our office cleanerr sits and dozes / charges his phone / eats his breakfast in my chair. I’ve never quite caught him but I’ve often ‘surprised’ him ‘suddenly cleaning’ when I've walked in earlier than normal (I'm a late person). My office is an easy choice – comfy, fan, phone charger ready plugged in on my desk. He will have noticed I’m rarely in before 9.30 and he can listen out for people coming in and out. In fact, as I’m above the front door, you can hear people arriving as the door slams shut.

He's been caught out in the past by leaving his breakfast on my desk, and coming back for it. Apologetically.

My colleague once nearly caught him in another office, so it's a known thing amongst us that this happens.

Yesterday there were some ear buds in a case on my desk. Barely anyone else here this week and nobody would want to sit here anyway, as they all have their own comfy offices. So I was pretty sure they were the cleaners. Wondering what to do / and wondering what he would do, I put them in my desk drawer while I thought about it. That was yesterday. This morning they’ve gone. This means he’s come in looking for his earbuds and has opened my personal drawers in my desk. These contain my personal effects – medication, spare underwear, receipts, personal letters and cards. I can't lock the door of my office or of my drawers. We're a pretty low-security establishment and trust one another.

In addition: we have a very narrow entrance to our building (which is part of a group of buildings, which are all serviced by an external company). He has taken up residence at the foot of the stairs. Eats his lunch there. sits on the stairs having loud conversations on his phone. We have to literally climb over him to get in and out, including when we have visitors.

I've always found this highly annoying and inappropriate but my colleagues don't seem to mind and tolerate it and I don't want to be the office bitch. The bloke is bussed in with a load of others from goodness knows where, at the crack of dawn, probably on the minimum wage and probably not well treated. There must be a common room where his colleagues hang out, but he seems to prefer our stairwell. Maybe they bully him, and he just wants some peace and quiet. So, I don't want to ruin things for him but he's crossed a line.

He speaks barely a single word of English, so I can't even have a gentle chat with him (or I'd have done it by now). The only way to communicate is via his boss. I suppose I could use Google Translate and leave him a note:

"Please do not take rest breaks at my desk, and do not open my drawers"

I don't want to scare him, though, or I'll end up being the one in trouble.

WWYD?

@burnoutbabe there will be no communal space except the stairs. You think employers provide a break room just for the office cleaners to use? They don't. If their is not a break room OP can use, there will not be one at all.

Stealing is taking something that does not belong to you. Most people when finding lost property either return it to the owner if they know who it is, or at least try and get a message to them. The OP hid the earbuds away. The cleaner had no idea if OP was going to take them home or not. An honest person would leave them on the desk when they went home.

This is completely unacceptable and tantamount to your home cleaning lady taking a nap and eating her lunch ON YOUR BED!

😂😂 No. It really isn’t. Maybe try and calm down a bit? Just breathe.. 😂

Just complain about him if you really want to OP - why on earth are you asking us what you should do, when you know what you what to do? Look - complain about him with the drawer thing, he’ll get fired then you don’t have to deal with him. It sounds like your always trying to catch him out anyway - just save yourself the time - complain about him. is that better?

but there is a room in the wider estate that the cleaners can use? they are employed by the building management, not this small office.

our company had a managed workspace - was regus. Cleaners employed by Regus, we had 5-6 rooms within the building. Cleaners would use regus rooms for breaks, Not just plonk down in client rented rooms.

Weren't you worried you'd be accused of stealing the ear buds?

@burnoutbabe I have worked as an office cleaner and never come across a break room just for cleaners. A tiny room where cleaning and maintenance supplies are stored yes. Have you actually seen this so called cleaners break room?

And OP works in a tiny charity that can not even afford to buy furniture. Its not even going to be a Regus managed workspace. It is going to be the cheapest place they could possibly find.

She has already complained. He will probably be sacked. I wonder if OP will try and steal from the next cleaner?

There you go op. Half the posters on here know exactly your cleaners lifestyle and needs. They know what’s acceptable in your office. You’ve been found guilty of stealing and not reporting modern day slavery.

Have you considered perhaps making more effort for him? Maybe get some fresh pastries and coffees for him in the morning? Also ensure you don’t keep personal effects in the drawer of the desk which does not belong to you in future!

Don’t you have a staff room where they can take their break?

Failing to say 'I put your earbuds in that drawer' is not stealing. You have a very shaky grip on the legal (and moral to be honest) concept of stealing. You could just Google the definition maybe?

The cleaner's no doubt on minimum wage and probably got a shit life. I know, I've worked as a cleaner starting at 5.30am and walking 2 miles to get to the dirty, freezing cold industrial estate in my fifties. Even so, there is absolutely no way I would plonk myself down in someone's office to eat my breakfast or block a stairwell to eat my lunch. I would expect to get sacked if I did.

When you put it that way, it is a bit mad on here actually. 😂😂

Next time a colleague leaves her phone on my desk I will just put it in my desk drawers and claim it was not stealing.

I think she should go further and buy a camp bed for him. Maybe even tuck him in and read him a wee story (in Spanish) as he drifts off for his wee nap?

If you do it with the intention of getting it off your desk and intend to give it back to her, then you can claim that safe in the knowledge you aren't stealing. I'm so glad that you've finally grasped the concept

@ClaudiaWankleman you can use that as a defence, but there is no evidence of OPs intention.

And if its just to get it off her desk while she works, why not put them back on her desk when she leaves for that day?

Yeah OP, why haven’t you learnt Spanish yet?

I’d be so embarrassed to say I worked for a charity then demonstrate I had not one iota of empathy for this man. Instead of asking him to not do the harmless things she has such a peculiar issue with, she gets management involved.
I hope she’ll be very happy in her ivory tower if he loses his job.

There's no defence to be made because he's got them back - although most reasonable people (you not falling into that camp of course) would suggest that an unlocked drawer and the fact that the earbuds moved location at most 3 feet to the side and a foot down is strong evidence that there was no intention to permanently deprive.

You were so close!

I don't understand everyone sticking up for him either... I suppose if you'd posted to say another colleague was complaining, and you were supporting his right to lounge in your chair, you'd have been told YABU and he's there to work!

I had a similar problem in my job a while ago. Some external workers were in our office building, and had been coming into my office on breaks, to make coffees etc. As there are a couple of different languages spoken, I got a sign for the door to say "Office staff only" in a couple of languages. It worked immediately.

Could you do the same?

@ClaudiaWankleman are you always so patronising?

OP is angry that he went into her private desk drawers to retrieve his ear buds. She clearly thinks this was wrong and would have preferred to have a lockable space to put things like this in.

And I did not suggest for one minute that OP would be prosecuted. Christ the police do not even prosecute blatant shoplifting under £200. But if I was OPs colleague I would be judging her harshly.

@magicstar1 so you stopped some external workers from having access to tea and coffee making facilities. Well done.