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?

At least he's there, OP seems to not even be on there on time ever doing her job...

Is this really how people think? I mean, surely we can assume that if the fire alarm goes off he'll evacuate along with everyone else, and not decide to stage some sort of sit-in protest? No-one is gonna die because he sometimes sits on the stairs. Dear lord.

You sound nice.

So let's get the cleaner to do OP's job just because he's there? 😂

He's already at her desk, maybe he is doing her work when no one's looking! 😂

I would suggest not keeping your spare underwear in a drawer that you know this guy accesses. Along with the adjacent comfy chair and phone charger, you might want to consider what else he is up to in there on his own...

I would have loved that at work! 🤣

I have of course but I’d keep any pants in my handbag rather than in desk drawers. I don’t considering anywhere in my office to be personal or private.

I had the same thing in my last office. I walked in one morning and found him asleep with his head on my desk. He explained that he had a young family and was working two jobs. I didn’t report him. I didn’t care. It’s work …

you could leave a cheeky note in the drawer 🤣 but I suppose if he/ they don’t speak English, ha well

Sorry but there's no way it would be acceptable for me to wander into a random personal office just cos it's empty and have my lunch break. Do you just wander around the office and look for someone else's desk to sit at at lunch time, having a little look through their cupboards for good measure?

God don't you sound kind. Op leave him alone and be grateful you generally don't have to share your office.

Exactly. Why would you care?!

It isn't your home - just a desk you work at

All of this could be avoided if OP, you know, turned up to work on time like everyone else...

There is absolutely no concrete evidence of human trafficking here. As for “allowing” the organisation to use this cleaning service, I have never worked anywhere where I or any other colleague who wasn’t directly responsible for office management got a say in the cleaning contract, or any other service contract.

The OP has more than once provided a perfectly reasonable explanation of why she put the earbuds in her drawer.

Oh FFS - now I’ve heard it all.

You clearly lead a very sheltered life. She said in the OP she is regularly coming later than most others- so he can't use other offices since they presumably have people already working in there...

I don’t see how that means I’ve lived a sheltered life 😆😆 I’ve lived enough life to know about flexi-time! I also know when someone is spectacularly missing the point.

Always remember that cleaners, tea ladies and chauffeurs usually know more hot office gossip than anyone else.
And be nice on the way up because the pack is waiting for you on the way down.

You sound awful - it's not actually 'your' office - it's the office you work from. Maybe he gets sick of sitting on the stairs to eat and thinks as she is usually in late I will sit in that office. You knew the headphones were his and he would likely come back for them - but chose to put them in the drawer instead of leaving them where they were so he could simply pick them up and then complain when he has to look for them. If you can't lock the drawers then I suggest you don't leave underwear in them or anything you wouldn't want anyone else to see. I have never left a change of underwear at work and if for any reason thought I might need one but leave them in my bag.

I’d hate that, too @VerySweatyBetty1— the person being “familiar” with my desk and personal space and things. Nope. I agree with the PP saying to get a lockbox, but it would offend me that I’d have to pay to keep somebody out of my personal things who shouldn’t be in them in the first place.
I became acquainted with our cleaner years ago. He was very nice and respectful, and would arrive on occasion as I was clearing up. Sometimes he’d bring his mother’s homemade tamales to sell - if I remember correctly, they were 20 for $10 and were genuine Mexican cuisine tamales. They were excellent.
Another time he came in holding his side — I asked him what the matter was and he very calmly said, “Oh - I got stabbed.”

Sorry OP, but I think you're unreasonable and your defensive responses also indicate you didn't really want honest responses to your question but posted it looking for some agreeable responses to consolidate your existing confirmation bias.

I really don't see it as a big deal. Being a cleaner is shit. They work shitty hours with shitty pay and nobody respects them (saying "hello" and other "niceties" isn't respect). I've been a cleaner, and it's crap. You cut yourself slack when you can. In my last job, one of the cleaners used to lock herself in the toilet and sit on her phone, talking loudly to someone instead of cleaning my desk. At first I used to get uppity about it and complain to my colleague, who also used to complain. But then I talked to her. Her husband had a weak heart and couldn't work, leaving her to work 6 day weeks with a bad back and no other income. She was scared of losing her husband, and she had also been a Kosovan refugee. She was just looking after herself when she could because nobody else was.

Don't be such a dick. Complaining to the management is the worst thing you could do to someone. You could have lost that guy his job, and all because you like to feel "comfortable" in your office space. Spoken from a place of privilege, for sure, and privilege that's clearly invisible to you.

As to what else you could do? Well, talk directly to the guy! Use Google Translate if you must. Man. But complaining to the management. How horrible.

Have you ever watched Maid on Netflix?

It's not up to OP to 'discipline' this person. 'Complaining to the management' isn't the thing. The thing is to let the management know that he's clearly not been told that it's not ok to do this, so he needs training about the correct places to take his break. Either that, or he has been told, and has ignored the rules, or OP is wrong, and he's allowed to take his break there.

Whichever way, it's not OP's job to take responsibility for someone who she doesn't manage, nor is it 'horrible' to ask his superior to deal with the issue.