To report the cleaner

[EmotionalLimbo]

I'm a PhD student and work in a doctoral school office with several other researchers, all doing our own thing. It's a wonderful quiet space and we're very lucky.

Well quiet that is until the bins are emptied every afternoon. I'm not sure if the person who comes in is a cleaner because I've never seen her do any cleaning in this office but she might do in other parts of the building.

She's just so loud. She's talking on the phone using Bluetooth earpieces so it looks like she's talking to herself. It's so distracting and it's not a work conversation because it's a foreign language.

I've contacted the estates people to ask them to tell her to stop as it's annoying everyone but nobody dare say anything. It's not my job to tackle her.

AIBU?

Make a plan ?

For what ?

OP has already reported the cleaner, although from the first post the OP is not sure if the talking woman is a cleaner or not.

OP has already emailed management.

Maybe a plan for an irate ex cleaner turning up and yelling about losing her job.?

Or maybe the woman will return and do the bins in silence.

Only 2 options really. The first is unlikely, but possible. The second needs no plan.

So the only plan needed, is to duck, if the first option happens. But that's more of an instinctive reaction.

Then pull on your big girl pants and go and tell her that!

But instead you came on here to tell everyone you were going to tell her boss. And when everyone told you you were being unreasonable and petty, you've got all upset.

I don't know why people are getting personal with the OP or arguing about her title or whether or not PhDs start out as MPhils as 'standard'. It's different everywhere. For example, I'm at a RG university (STEM), we call our PhD students just that, not 'PhD candidates', it's unusual to be offered a PhD position without a masters (PG masters not an undergraduate masters) but not unheard of, and our PhD students are enrolled as PhD students from the start, not as MPhil then 'upgraded'. None of this has any bearing on the OP's experiences so why people are trying to catch her out on her use of language I have no idea. It's just nastiness for the sake of it.

I’ve read most of the thread.
Tbh she sounds a PITA and a bit thick if she doesn’t realise how her loud voice impacts on other people.
I’ve experienced this. I was a high school teacher and 3 days out of 5 I would stay behind for 45 minutes to an hour to mark books. The cleaner who cleaned my classroom fancied himself as a singer and would sing at the top of his voice. How could he not know that he was disturbing someone who was trying to work?
Lack of self awareness.
Not much you can do, OP except, like others have suggested, you take this time to have a break, go for a walk, text friends, do internet banking, emailing…
Often the only way to deal with irritating people is to change your behaviour and not try to change theirs.

No, she isn’t working all day long but, even if she did, talking loudly on the phone while people are trying to work is rude. She is actually supposed to come to our office after we finish work, this is her evening job. She comes earlier because she wants to finish earlier and that’s fine, but at least she could be a bit more considerate when working around us (in the same way we don’t go walking on her freshly mopped floors).
I used to work as a cleaner and I never had a phone conversation in the presence of my clients (nor do I do that now loudly on the train, bus etc).
I wish people were a bit less self-entitled :(

Perhaps the plot twist here is that we are part of the OPs research.

Attitude to noise in the workplace.

You are if you go to their manager! You are adding to negative feedback. You can't be so naive as not to know this will be seen as a complaint.
Fairly pitiful you can't communicate directly with the cleaner after all you know her name and say hello to her right?...mmmmm seen and not heard right? Like a servant...

OP, I feel you may have got a better response if you hadn't mentioned job titles at all.

"I am working in a quiet space, which I feel is necessary for my concentration. A colleague who works for another department has brief duties in my workspace and is often loud when she comes in and disturbs me with what I believe to be loud personal conversations" would have sufficed.

I am curious why you felt the need to detail what you do and what you think she does?

You seem quite unnecessarily angry at the OP?

are you the loud colleague???

You seem quite unnecessarily angry at the OP?

are you the loud colleague???

But you wouldn’t expect a loud cleaner to burst into a meeting and talk loudly on their phone would you?? So why is it ok in this instance??

I’d follow her out of the room one day and mention it in the corridor with nobody else around.

Me angry ? Not at all.

I just find this thread interesting.

It's a nothing story, and OP has already taken the action. She reported the cleaner, if that's what the woman is, or was.

Looking forward to the update on the next bin day. What plan will be used, belatedly.

It might feel like a Flash Gordon cliffhanger come Monday.

And nope, I don't linger around university bins talking on my phone.

To set in context. I'm not an employee. I don't have a manager. It's of no interest to my academic supervisor. It was to highlight the situation. Would it be any different if it was a photocopy engineer? I can't think of anyone else who'd come on.

On the contrary. Seen and very much heard And comments about servants are just stupid and goady.

That would have been an adult response, yes. Instead OP alerted the employee’s LM but somehow does not characterise this as a complaint.

You must have been an exceptional student in order to be accepted to undertake original research. This is relevant because it means that you are capable of talking to a cleaner without having to report them to their manager, which any intelligent person would think was the first course of action.

What a weird take, how does not wanting someone having a loud phone conversation in your quiet office make a person unbearable

Pretty sure that makes everyone in my office unbearable too, but luckily we all have the absolute common sense approach to make personal calls in the break room and keep them to a minimum during working g hours

I don't think the response and the negative replies towards the OP are really because she objected to the lady talking loudly on her phone, I think many people would find that distracting, no matter what job they were trying to concentrate on.

It's the pathetic way she handled it.

A box of chocolates, bottle of wine, simpering apologies to ask her to be quiet were not needed either.
Just a simple quiet request to please not speak loudly on her phone in that particular office as people were working....simple.

Going behind her back o report her is childish, petty and cowardly.

I wasn’t implying a token of appreciation is necessary. And if it is phony or strained, it would backfire.

I’ve always had a soft spot for custodial staff and showing appreciation has come naturally. Is it a coincidence that my radiators have been bled first, or at my convenience, that my mail has been delivered to my desk when I am injured, that I have been gifted samples of cleaning products after discussions with cleaners, etc? I don’t think so. It would come naturally to me to cushion a request and it would not feel precious. But I am not British.

On on hand, I absolutely detest people chattering away incessantly hands free. Especially when on the bus or in the shops.

On the other, I work as a cleaner and we do get treated like rubbish by some other staff. The petty snitching reporting is ridiculous. Things like drinking bottles of water, listening to music on headphones, accused of listening in on private conversation, not cleaning areas properly (even though they are sabotaged and obstructed by the complainant) or simply just talking (even though when other people do it, it's overlooked). Yet, we're still expected to contribute to whip rounds 😡

I kind of get the feeling OP was trying to get sympathy and admiration and to encourage others to be angry that some low life was disturbing them. There is definitely a lot of job snobbery and classism on Mumsnet

I kind of get the feeling you're trying to cause trouble. I don't want or need admiration or sympathy. Just honest feedback.

The only comments akin to lowlife and snobbery comes from other posters. Not from me.

@Floogal I work as a cleaner too.

Will you be giving us an update on Monday OP ? Or whenever next bin day is.

Silent cleaner, new cleaner, no cleaner , talking cleaner?

But remember to set your phone to silent if posting from your desk :-)