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?

Ignore the bleeding heart crap. All too many Mumsnetters love to show off about how kind they are to poor minimum wage folk. The fact is he isn’t doing his job properly.

"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.

How would you end up in trouble? You are making a perfectly polite and valid request.

You shouldn't have put his ear buds inside your drawer. I would have left them out, so it can be seen. Put nothing valuable inside your drawers. He may actually be entitled to a 15 minute break, but he has no where to sit?

I've never worked anywhere that didn't have a lockable drawer - where do you store confidential stuff?

And I have a lot of personal belongings around. Not valuable but personal nonetheless

What's that got to do with the cleaner?

I’d put my chair away somewhere 😂

They probably didn’t expect cleaners to root through said space though.

You say he must have a common room, but where is it? The whole set up sounds dodgy and he may be being trafficked. Who's in charge of choosing the cleaning firm? Surely they need to prove all staff are legit and earning nmw?
The poor bloke. Do you know what language he speaks? I'd be trying to check his welfare by using a translation app.

Couldn't get worked up about this.

You were unreasonable putting the earbuds in your draw.

I can only imagine everyone here works in a very corporate environment where nobody has anything of theirs. We're a small charity - 10 people. A great team. We all get on well as we spend a lot of time here (evenings and weekends) - everyone makes it homely. We've all got personal effects here - clothes, shoes, stuff. Our office building is serviced by an external company. we don't employ the cleaner directly. I wish we did / could!

You don't have proof he has done this
Pre-judging
Do you have enough evidence to report him to his manager, because rather than accuse someone in a public forum, why not do the correct thing?

That crossed my mind as well

@BobbyBiscuits - he has a large team of colleagues, who clean various spaces on the estate where we work. They must all have a staff room and lockers. He just prefers to hang out with us. But, tbh, he's massively in the way.

Good grief MN amazes me. You're all piling on the OP because she doesn't want anyone else sat at her desk on her chair?! Quite right too OP!

Being bussed in for many places is normal. Many Companies do this. Someone has to work the job. Doesn't mean he's a victim of trafficking fgs.

And he still doesn't seem to notice the dust on the desk and never hoovers under the desk

this is standard for office cleaning isn’t it? Too many complaints about work being moved/iT set ups being disturbed.

that aside I think you’re being overly territorial about a work space. If there’s no obvious break space for him to use then there probably isn’t one. I think the whole situation sounds exploitative and I would raise it with the organisation to check that they’d done due diligence in ensuring they weren’t supporting modern slavery for the sake of a cheap contract.

I wouldn’t leave any personal items I wouldn’t want someone else finding at work, I’d keep them in my bag. What if you’re not there and someone needs to find something so goes through your drawers? If they’re not lockable there’s no reason to think they should not go through them if there is sufficient reason.

If your employer wanted your space to be private and secure, your office and desk would lock. Everybody is fully aware that in a work environment, drawers and storage spaces that don't lock aren't secure and shouldn't be treated as such.

You hid his earbuds, which he could have just put down whilst cleaning and not using your office for a break
They could either have been something he had to save up for a while for as he's being underpaid or something he borrowed off someone dangerous which he needed to get back to them quickly

Because it definitely sounds dodgy

Regarding not speaking any English - it's very very common for people to be doing this kind of job with no English language skills. The whole team speak the same language, as do their bosses. That is not unusual.

Why shouldn’t she try to catch him out? He shouldn’t be using her office as a break room!

Technically it’s his work space too.

You’ve been watching too many Channel 4 dramas.

Going into your dedk is completely not ok. I am surprised the other posters don’t take this seriously. Get a child lock for your desk and complain to security.

Firstly, the desk belongs to the company, unless you went out and bought it yourself?

Secondly, if you're keeping your knickers in the office drawer, you shouldn't have stuck his property in it, should you? 🙄

I find it odd that you are getting a hard time on this @VerySweatyBetty1 .
I am a cleaner, there is no way I would use anyone's office as a place to have my breakfast or sit on the stairs getting in people's way.

While I agree his circumstances may not be good , in previous rolls I have had my team would get picked up in a mini bus due to the early starts .

He also needs to do the job properly.

Except she doesn't own the office.

Are you not bothered that he may well be enslaved? You haven't made any response to this only about yourself.

Well the OP shouldn’t have put the cleaner’s stuff in amongst her personal possessions if she didn’t want him to “root through” them to get them back. She could have left them out on the desk where he left them so that he could have picked them up.