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?

You've ignored the busing in large group, contact through boss only and it's a very big problem.....I didn't say it was I said I would be considering it and doing some research. Did you read the article I attached.

Oh op cut him some slack. There isn't anything that you've said that sounds intolerable. Put your spare knickers in your handbag and treat your work area like an actual work area.

Just get a little padlock for your desk or filing cabinet and keep personal items secure. So what if he eats his lunch in the stairwell? Poor bloke.

How do you know these bussed in people have a break room in what sounds like a converted old office building

You’ve listed at least one profession I was in before I got too ill and breaks were absolutely built in to the day. Off site working breaks were generally taken by people in their own vehicles but no one was ever left stranded on a site with no area available at all. I’ve also worked in plenty of office with no official break area where you were expected to use your desk but then cleaners weren’t on site during core hours.

I don’t know why your turning this into a racism/xenophobic issue when there absolutely is a healthy market in this country for people forced to work in substandard conditions that don’t comply with working regulations that others have the benefit of. Checking it out is the least a person can do, if there’s nothing going on then there’s no harm done is there? Leaving it because you’re desperate to not commit an ‘ism’ is just stupid.

Racism is discrimination or prejudice based on race or ETHNICITY.

Some people will always play that card rather than take any responsibility I suppose everyone in a cheap nail bar or car wash is also not to be thought of as possibly trafficked .....but hey it's cheap labour who cares? Cleaning is in a growing industry for trafficking

And I'd have left the ear buds on the desk rather than put someone else's property in my drawer which had personal possessions in it.

I'd probably have put them in the bin. It's a bit icky having someone else's earbuds on your desk.

If you're genuinely concerned about human trafficking, report the cleaning company to the authorities.

they are doing a job that most native English speakers probably believe is beneath them

@LookItsMeAgain what justification do you have for that statement? I’ve cleaned and know a fair few cleaners , it can be a very well paid and flexible job. I don’t know anyone who feels it’s ’beneath’ them.

Fact is that there are lots of dodgy ‘companies’ that can’t afford anyone living here legitimately and significantly underpay people who have few choices about where they can make money. These companies aren’t offering minimum or living wages.

Breaks are built in, yes. That is protected by law. Where you take your break isn't something your employer has to provide however. You can go wherever you want.

No one here knows where this man is from. People are jumping to conclusions because he doesn't speak English. That is it.

And in my office they clean and tidy the desks - it annoys me often because the cables get shoved down the back of the desk. You've got absolutely no reason to suggest her doesn't clean desks, especially considering he clearly does touch stuff in/ on the desk!

You can't imagine that Eastern European people can experience racism? They've been subject to horrific ethnic cleansing multiple times in the last century.

There is no common room for office cleaners in 99% of offices. Cleaners get treated like shit in most places.

Would you like him to sit on the kerb outside your building instead?

What harm is he doing?

If you don't hide his earbuds he won't have to go looking for them.

I'm with the OP on this. I don't see what his job or wage has to do with it. Just because the guy clearly has a low-paid job doesn't entitle him to sit at her desk. Yes, I wouldn't have hidden the earphones in the drawer but that still doesn't entitle him to rummage through it.

jumping to conclusions is a fair statement, but that’s why people can raise concerns and have these things looked into properly.

not speaking English marks someone out as vulnerable because they’re living and working in a country with little to no way of communicating independently. If they have a supportive employer then great, if however, they’ve ended up in an exploitative situation then it really isn’t great and whoever is employing the companies services has a responsibility to stop encouraging that market.

@Cornettoninja I have been an office cleaner. Office cleaners are NOT well paid.

You need to take this up with your employers. Why are they bussing in cleaners from god knows where, and not providing them with proper facilities to take breaks and eat meals? (Which clearly they aren't, otherwise he wouldn't be sitting on the stairs!) Whether they work directly for your employer or not, there is a duty of care.

Where do you take your breaks and eat your lunch, and why can't he do the same? My own employer would not stand for second class treatment of any employees or contractors in terms of facilities, and nor should any employer. We all work in the same building and we are all treated in the same way. The cleaners can eat their lunch in the same canteen as the CEO.

This poor bloke has to do the best he can in a shit employment situation. Which you've now made even shitter by hiding his personal possessions.

We had such a great time. We actually worked hard, for shitty money, and did what we should do plus were nice to people. But still we were treated so badly by some, and looked down on. Only because of the jobs we did.

I can honestly say that this has helped me so much in my life. I decided never to treat anyone that way. And I never have. At work I make sure to talk a bit to whoever cleans for us often they don’t speak our language very well. But what do I know of their background, they might be more educated than me. Or not, who cares. I do know if nobody speaks to them, how will they learn our language.

Treat people the way you want to be treated. I would never hide someones earphones on purpose, this I am certain of.

Edit; I can say that I will never buy an Elizabeth Arden product in my life. The way they treated their staff was shocking.

Agreed, but cleaning as a profession certainly can be. Office cleaning can be great for some due to the hours traditionally worked, but I really don’t believe that the larger population believe it’s beneath them. Most people would do any kind of work they could if they needed to.

I’m of the view anyone can experience racism, although some may disagree.

I agree with this. Unless you bought the desk and the chair, it's not yours. He works there, too.

I would have left the ear buds where they were, since I knew they were not mine. Ear buds are probably a luxury for him, and expensive, so he will come to look for them.

As to the rest, why are you so worried? So he eats his breakfast in your chair, it's a chair. Presumably you have no evidence he has ever before opened drawers, so hiding his ear buds was the cause of this. Leave him alone. He gets bussed in a God alone knows what time, and is a cleaner. And don't lock up the phone charger, it's not costing you anything to charge his phone.
Choose to ignore. Or just say, hi!, good morning, when you arrive.

What? CAPS doesn’t actually help here. Who is being racist and how, explain clearly. Thanks.

Probably because the group have already done a number of cleaning jobs/offices since the crack of dawn and well before OP has had her coffee and croissants for breakfast.

So my guess is that he is hungry.

Even 'bussed in' people are allowed to eat and have a quick breather.

Once he doesn't breathe on OP'S space that is. 🙄

So what was the point of your comment asking what race Eastern European people are?