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?

😂

Maybe you are right!

I know I am, For specific cases.

I gotta improve my diet.

:-)

Hahaha. What do you need to cut out? For me it’s bread and baked goods.

I am not sure TBH. I really should try. Happy to hear you are on top if it though.

But I don't actually use much paper these days, I just jump in the shower after. I don't often use public facilities. Just my situation, before I am accused of anything :-)

Maybe toilets should be segregated by diet and arse type. For the sake of the cleaners. Hairy arse and bad diet, no paper, a hose pipe instead. Good diet and follicle free, lovely little supersoft moisturized squares.

Anyway. That's a great point from the PP about bog stuffers. Maybe the chatting cleaner dwells so long in the toilets because there is a hairy arsed man who shares the office and stuffs the toilet full.

So the solution might be to have a word with whoever has the hairy arse, ask him not to stuff the bog, and voila, the cleaner cuts 15 minutes from their schedule .

I feel we are getting somewhere with this.

:-)

I don't think the OP has said anything that implies 'looking down on' anyone.

I do, however, think it's interesting that so many people have so quickly assumed that no one could possibly be an academic and not look down on a cleaner.

Which, I think, betrays those people's opinion of both academics and cleaners, and neither is very kind.

She’s replying to people. This is how it works. She’s also having to defend herself. Like you say, she’s saying the same thing because she’s having to.

Halleuia!

This, 100%.
I cannot believe how socially awkward so many Mumsnetters really are.

This is like the quiet carriage on a train, where someone talks non-stop on their phone throughout the journey. Everyone else would hate it and would often prefer to complain to a guard rather than tackle the person directly.

It isn’t the same. You have the opportunity of a cordial relationship with your office cleaners, allowing for some give and take. The same cannot be of your fellow train passengers.

She doesn’t have to defend herself. She doesn’t have to do anything. She’s choosing to. If she’s not trying to prove anything and this thread is serving no purpose, then why bother?

She’s not making cleaning noise though is she , if it was hoovering then I assume it wouldn’t be a problem and also it would be less distracting than a loud conversation.

If the cleaner came into an office where people were working and did this it wouldn’t be acceptable just as it’s not acceptable to do this in a research area.

no idea why some people think she should carry on and not be told to keep a bit quieter

Wow, @EmotionalLimbo, some of the replies here are bonkers! No, the cleaner does not need to be conducting personal calls while she is doing her job - I don't know many workplaces where this would be OK.

Yes, as research students you are entitled to be able to work in a quiet environment. I work in an organisation which does a lot of scientific research and we understand that lots of researchers need an almost silent workplace and we respect that. (If you need a busier environment, you work in a different part of the office)

Others are correct that your first line of action should be to speak to the cleaner politely yourself. If you don't get anywhere, then take it further - the expectation for the cleaner to not be talking on calls while she empties the bins in your area is not unreasonable.

But you don’t have to be here. You can choose not to read this thread. She asked a question. People have answered. She has responded.

How weird.
In my experience of working with and knowing probably hundreds of white women over the years, the vast majority will never go for a poo in a public lavatory anyway.
And the act of putting loo paper down to disguise the sound is a new one on me too.

And yet she didn’t answer my question. I never said I had to be here. I was very clear as to what I was asking and why.

You, much like OP, clearly get off on pointless arguments with strangers on MN. I do not, so shall leave you both to it.

@rainbowsandraspberrygin answered your question. No point me repeating the same thing again is there?

I am not sure I agree with you on pointless arguments debate.

I too, like yourself, felt this a pointless and frivolous thread (maybe not for the cleaner though), but I am now happy to admit I was wrong.

Discussion and debate is of course a great way to find out other people's opinions. And for folk with a curious mind, it's a great way to discover different opinions. It is a form of research. And education too.

I have learnt how different people view research for example. For some it's sacrosanct, for others its middle class folk acting as if important. We knew those 2 extremes of opinion already yes, but debate such as this allows to see the passion different folk might have for those options. And even with a limited data set, we still get a feel for proportions. This site is pretty neutral.

And because it's maybe not as an important subject for many, it's a sort of safe space where one can be swayed by other points, admit to having been swayed, and absolutely no loss of face in incurred.

And it's a good safe discussion/debate to have a little injected humor too. A smile now and then is very important. Not many of them to be found over on the "serious" threads. about the budget or immigration.

Because entitled loud phone people who think everyone else is a mirage and only they exist, also the rest of the world should know all their business. Everyone should join in public with unsolicited, terrible advice but they still probably wouldn't get the message.

Blimey I stopped reading all the replies and just concentrated on the OP .(Which incidentally did include quotes from other posters so I can see a pile on)

I am a cleaner and I respect people's quiet spaces, whatever they are doing.

I wouldn't dream of holding a phone conversation in someone's space. Even an emergency call, I'd move aside to take.

I don't carry my phone whilst I'm cleaning, but I have a radio which I turn down if,/when I come across people.

It's called courtesy and respecting others.

I don't see the replies as indicating attitudes to academics in general, but towards this specific academic. There is something a bit high and mighty about going straight to a complaint ("reporting") rather than first making a polite request.

I received a response this morning thanking me for my comment (note, not complaint) and that her supervisor will have a quiet word about phone etiquette.

No sacking. Not today anyway.

You should have just had a quiet word with her. She would have stopped.

If one of your colleagues finds something you do annoying, I’m sure you would appreciate them raising it with you first rather than running to your line manager.

Good stuff. So we can pack the pitchforks away for another day.

And our the spys cover has not been blown.

Did the cleaning supervisor happen to mention your bog bunger at all ? Just as a matter of interest.

:-)

I don't have a line manager or colleagues. None of us interact sufficiently to annoy anyone else.