New cleaning rota at work feels sexist

[Kayleigh1234]

The company I work for has a fairly small office space within a bigger complex. We were told last week that as there’s lower office attendance due to WFH/hybrid, our company is no longer paying for the site cleaning service and we will be responsible for cleaning our small kitchen space and bathroom ourselves.

Fwiw, I believe the real reason is because of cost cutting and the price of that service increased in April which I’d heard the bosses moan about previously.

Anyway, our (male) manager emailed round the cleaning rota today and the first 7 slots are ALL females (every female on the team is named consecutively). 4 male colleagues are then named, before it reverts.

The manager and his usual step up/deputy, are not named despite them being in the office as much as the rest of us. His deputy is the same job level as me and a couple of others, and when he was asked why he isn’t on the rota, he said ‘he hasn’t got time for that sort of thing’.

Am I wrong to feel like this is all a bit off?

It doesnt feel sexist, it is sexist. EVERYONE is on the rota or noone and they pay for cleaners.
Id be happy to help with the kitchen at our work if everyone is resonsible for washing up their own mugs, cutlery plates etc but no way would I be cleaning colleagues skid marks at work!

If you’re not contracted to do cleaning work I would not be doing it.

Surely the placement of the people on the rota coincide when they'll be in the office and not working from home?

Having the guys do four days in a row could be interesting, will they do the job or leave it for the women. It's a bit much either way asking the staff to do the cleaning

It’s not fully linked to that, there’s at least one day a week we are all in as a team day. So no excuse for it not to be a male on one of the first weeks.

There is no way I would be doing this. My role profile or contract does not cover cleaning duties

If your all in agreement to do this then I would suggest men clean their own bathroom and women do theirs. Also everyone cleans up after themselves in the kitchen a d the rota's person just wipes down

It’s a unisex bathroom - I say bathroom, it’s essentially a large room with a toilet in with a lock.

I wouldn't mind cleaning the kitchen but I wouldn't be cleaning the bathroom. What do others think; do you think they will actually follow the rota?

Are you in a union? I would be querying whether it was part of your job description.

i would also say either everyone does it, including managers, or no one does it. Tidying up after yourself in the kitchen is one thing, but cleaning the toilet?! No way!

No chance would I be cleaning

I'd politely decline ... no way would I be cleaning a toilet room.

We aren’t overly impressed but it’s a fairly small
company and not really something we can easily challenge unless all were in agreement and there’s not enough of us who’d say anything, so we will reluctantly grin and bear it..

There is no way I would agree to take on these cleaning duties and I would suggest everyone else also refuses and they will have to pay for a cleaner again.

No way would I be cleaning work bathrooms!
Speak to ACAS or your union if you have one.
Also not to be that person but am sure there's h&s around use of cleaning products etc. Have they trained you all? What if something happened would they be willing to accept liability?

I would not be cleaning the toilet

No way would I be cleaning up after my colleagues. Plus people have different standards so some people would do a really good job and others would do a basic crap clean.

absolutely not and especially if managers who are using the loo aren’t also on the rota. Your male manager expects you to clean up after him??

You just know that the toilet is going to stink to high heaven after the men have been doing the cleaning for four days.

I'm not sure why it's sexist everyone is on the list so why does it matter what order? I would however object to the cleaning!

Is that even legal ? The company might be opening themselves to liability because of bodily fluids and dangerous chemicals. I might give a kitchen an occasional wipe down but wouldn't touch a toilet.

How does doing the cleaning fit in with your job description and contract? Are they expecting you to fit it in to your normal hours or work extra time?
Really, it's the sort of thing that should have been discussed at a staff meeting, not just imposed on you.
I'd be quite unhappy about this.

They tried to do this at an office job I had before - before it got to my turn my colleague got bleach/cleaning product marks on her clothes, complained until they reimbursed her for her jacket. Then we finally got cleaners back!
So you could make it more trouble than it's worth.

I’d reply all to say, happy to do a rota but can we do this the other way round. I’m sure that wasn’t the intention but it feels a bit sexist having the women first.
Then I’d decide whether to clean or not based on what the men did….

I might be convinced to wipe down the kitchen counters. But bathroom????? I don’t even clean my own bathrooms at home! Absolutely not! Gross!!!

Let’s face it - they won’t. And if the women are savvy, neither will they.