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?

But tech you stole his earbuds

Oh FFS, this is ridiculously over the top. If you found a set of earbuds that didn’t belong you you in your work area, wouldn’t you put them somewhere safe until you could get them back to the owner? Maybe like - ooh, I don’t know - your desk drawer?! Would that be “stealing”?!

I'd leave him alone and thank my lucky stars that the office I take for granted and feel super proprietary over, probably provides him with the one chilled out moment in a shitty day.

I get that you don't want him eating at your desk but by your own admission you have a comfy chair, a fan and it's nice and quiet. The poor bloody bloke is doing your cleaning at the crack of dawn, probably getting ripped off by an unscrupulous agency and with the language barrier you mention, is unlikely to climb the bloody corporate ladder.

Life is too short. I would honestly leave him a little snack tbh to just let him know he's valued and not an annoyance as you seem to find him. Poor guy

Sounds like you think he should know his place.
Why can’t you keep your knickers in your bag? Or dust your own desk? It would take 20 seconds.

You are being weirdly territorial about company owned space. Why are you keeping spare underwear and so many personal effects in your desk drawer anyway? Underwear can go in your bag surely. This seems like such a non issue, give the poor guy a break. Do you really think when he was a kid his life’s dream would be to work in a foreign country cleaning offices? Sounds like he has a pretty miserable life and you are begrudging him a spot to eat his breakfast.

If this is really such a big deal to you though, you need to make a formal complaint against him, or just let it go.

He might report OP for nicking his earbuds.

You should probably set up a direct debit and give him a regular monthly sum so he doesn't have to nick your stuff.
If he does have a shit life he shouldn't risk his job by stealing

It's ridiculously over the top to say you'd count your own lucky stars that someone else was able to take advantage of your designated working area to nap on their job.

TBH you need to get a life if this is bothering you so much. I remember being really pissed off when someone in the office regularly used my mug - we all had our own- when I got back from maternity leave I couldn’t temper which one it was, I laugh now becouse it’s soo trivial but it used to boil my piss. You don’t have enough for doing clearly. Leave the poor guy a lottery ticket ir a packet of crisps once a week and a little note thanking him for his work and stop being such a pain in the hole

@PuppyMonkey - that did occur to me!

I had the same experience. People joked about it. The cleaner said ‘it was my desk before she ever worked here’
I didn’t do anything.

Well then it’s a good thing you aren’t in a corporate hot desk space or you’d have a shitfit. Having said that most places don’t allow desk eating or drawers of any kind. Feel bad for the

What do you mean by estate? A family estate? Business park? I’m now curious as to what your job is, you don’t need to tell me, I’m just being nosy.

@Inkyblue123 I don't worry about mugs, but I remember a time when I did!

None of that means he should be doing a worse job than another cleaner would or behave less professionally. There are some brilliant cleaners out there.

Whatever job we choose to do we should all be doing it properly, we rely on each other to do the job we have properly. To underestimate the importance of cleaning is an incredibly belittling comment for other cleaners who do do their job properly.

For some who works for a charity, honestly you don’t seem very charitable. He’s taking a break to eat his breakfast 🤷‍♀️

Unless you are the owner of the company, it's really up to your employers how the office you use is used by others, so I'd take it up with them if you want no one else to sit at the desk you use. If you keep personal possessions at work either ask for a locked space or accept it's at your own risk. Any confidential documents should be locked away anyway. If the desk is being left dirty or untidy you have reason to complain. Otherwise, I think you need to develop a different attitude to work space. It's not your home.

I do not think there is anything you can do to prevent a cleaner sitting in your office, at least you actually catch them doing it.
For resting, breaks, a common room is needed. Your business needs to provide space designated to eat and have a cup of tea or whatever and he needs to take his breaks there.
Regarding the cleaningless of your office, that is what would bother me, and I would raise that till they sort it.

@Usercyzabc I would organise things completely different if we were a hotdesking place. My husband's place of work has moved to that, and they all have lockers. We don't need lockers as we all have our offices. I don't tend to leave valuables there but I do like to have spare clothes, shoes etc.

Each to their own. Many different ways to work. And this works for us.

I would ask via his boss or a note translated, that he not sit in your chair due to the dse adjustments being messed with. Just say the chair is set up to your needs and it is causing issues someone else using it. That's probably.the least confrontational way to approach.

You’re being too precious about office space and equipment that you use but do not own in any way. You work there and so does he. Just because it’s been ‘assigned’ to you doesn’t mean you should feel possessive over it. He leaves the space when you get there and aside from leaving one or two things on your desk, he doesn’t inconvenience you in any way. Please don’t embarrass him or get him in trouble. It’s a small mercy to allow the guy 10/15 minute morning break in a private space you’re not using.

As pp said, if the company doesn’t provide lockable storage then they dont expect you to store your personal belongings in there. I wouldn’t love that he went into the draw but you really shouldn’t leave your underwear in an office drawer, especially one that doesn’t lock! And as you’ve said, he doesn’t speak much English so what could he have reasonably done?

Do you think someone who is bussed in at the crack of dawn doing a really horrible job shouldn’t have a rest? No, he probably shouldn’t have gone through your drawers, but you could easily have left his pods out for him, but you didn’t. You hid them.
Seeing as your colleagues don’t have a problem, seems like you’re not cutting him a lot of slack.

Why should she clean when thats his actual job?

It doesn't sound as if it's really an inconvenience to you – you just don't like it. The desk and office is not yours, it's your company's.

You put them in your drawer, trying to test to see what he’d do. He clearly looked in the most logical place and found them in the drawer.

If you don’t want someone opening your drawer, maybe don’t hide their possessions in your drawer? It’s not rocket science

How do you know he naps at your desk? You don't. Who cares if he sits at your desk to eat his breakfast? How does that actually harm or inconvenience you? You need to unclench, I would not give a single shit about this.

You work for a charity, I see so very much made into your own space in your head perhaps, I did wonder if you were in the public sector.

This is still a place of work, as such the space belongs to the charity, this is your issue OP, lose the desk plants, and the personal stuff and you won’t give it a second thought. As long as he’s not making a mess or leaving shit everything (AirPods don’t count I mean actual shit), it’s unimportant