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?

@makaroni I do wish a spoke Spanish as I love foreign languages. I did GCSE but would struggle to order a beer now.

It is not just a vat status. But you know that and are just being goady.

Yes well done on reporting to a senior. I hope the op will sleep easy knowing the grubby man is not ever going to sit on her chair or <whispers it> sit on the stairs every again. She can breathe a sigh of relief that she dealt with the whole absolute non event like the Senior Jobsworth she clearly is 🏆.

When met with such density, yes.

@ClaudiaWankleman you really are not a pleasant person.

What would any of you think about a charity if you visited it and had to climb over someone watching tv/eating their lunch on the stairs to get to their offices?

you'd assume the charity was pretty badly run and a bit crap. You may choose not to invest/support them/use their services.

any member of staff doing that would be discinplined/sacked if they didn't move.

I think you need to look at why threads like this go a little batshit crazy and in this instance I believe it's because the OP, for many reasons all of her own making, comes across as a really unlikeable and unreasonable character!

Something so easily solved with a little emotional intelligence and compassion. And straightforward communication. But her words and attitude have us thinking she's sitting in that flaming office like Smaug on his hoard.

She's absolutely convinced that this is a black and white case and she's absolutely in the right. No grey area at all. Nothing she could have done or said any different. Either to stop the situation, understand the situation or solve the situation. And that's the kind of attitude that leave you wide open.

Hmm so how much do people need to be getting paid for them to be expected to do their job properly? Or is it only cleaners who are allowed to slack on the job and cross boundaries. That would be a bit unfair for all the other minimum wage workers though. I'm sure they would love to have that perk of the job too. And no one will be upset about customer service staff or carers or childcare assistants being slack and crossing boundaries at their jobs.

This is a very fair analysis.

She does indeed.

It’s the only thing I can say in Spanish I think. 🍻

Why are people making this about being a man? Could easily have the exact same conversation about a woman doing the same thing surely!!

Um..
Because it was a man...

Very goady and if the op genuinely believes it, she needs to get in the bin for being as thick as mince.

I'd suggest she's in that office on her own for very good reason. Did she say she was one of ten? There's obvs 9 colleagues with a vested interest in having her out of the way!

Well put.

I work for a charity and not one member of staff would give a shiny shit if our very valued cleaner sat in an office chair for a bite to eat. The horror. We’d have a nice chat, then we’d all get on with our day.

i said on the stairs, obstructing the entrance to the entire office? not in a chair in the office.

@burnoutbabe But OP only reported the cleaner when he sat on her chair when she was not in to eat his breakfast and went into her desk drawers to retrieve his ear pods that OP had put there.

I would say excuse me. And if it was a habit that actually inconvenienced anyone I would offer them a chair in an office to take a break, maybe even mine.
The people that use the charity I work for couldn’t give a shit about this nonsense.

OP, just to say that to anyone rational and reasonable you certainly don't come over as unlikeable, entitled or any of the other insults thrown at you here.

There's an outbreak of competitive virtue -signalling going on.

And again you miss the bussing in and boss doing all the talking

Agreed. Some of the nonsense being spouted is just next level.

haven't read the thread but in your place I would:

1. Stop hiding his things
2. Stop keeping things on work premises if they are too private for other people to see. If you lose your job or your boss needs something or for any other reason "your" drawer will searched because they it doesn't belong to you. Use your handbag for underwear.
3. Leave him alone.

Ah leave him alone fs

Now using a phone becomes watching TV was it a 54"? It's a cheap building with multiple companies not a corporation.