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?

Not the point. Her role involves, I'd assume, various parts of the campus. Ours doesn't.

It also must be less disturbing as it’s a “foreign language”

so presumably you don’t tune into it

and yes it’s her workspace too

I used to work in a very similar such environment (PhD student in both wet and dry lab situations). If a cleaner came and made some noise for a fraction of the day I think pretty much everyone I worked with would be able to tolerate it. I think YABU.

A cleaner deserves as much respect as the managing director.

If you would feel comfortable reporting him or her for disturbing your peace for a few minutes, because they are doing their job too loudly, then I suppose it's a fair point.

We all deserve to work in a suitable environment.

OP you are of course assuming everyone need silence at work

maybe for her she needs talking

some cultures see silence differently you know

that’s why it would be good to deal with it yourself face to face as you’d find out

But you know you're effectively putting her manager on to something you could easily deal with yourself.

You're not being unreasonable at all for wanting her to be quieter and she's being rude and unprofessional, but I do think it is unreasonable to go straight to her manager without giving her the opportunity to rectify it without managerial involvement. Especially if she's literally only in to empty the bins.

Maybe you could all have a rota yourselves and empty the bins personally. Job done 👍

So you've already reported her. What is the point of this thread?

Does the ‘cleaner’ have a name and is being viewed as a human doing their job? Doesn’t sound as such

I don't think so. We're not getting paid for a start. Might think about putting it to estates though ... Thanks for the idea @bettyboo9 💡. You'd really like me to name the cleaner? On Mumsnet?

And she deserves to work somewhere where people are not looking down on her, or creating an atmosphere whilst she does her job.

Need to get paid OP for everything 🤯

you can free yourself for 5
minutes!!!

How long does she spend in your office. That is important to how reasonable it is for you to complain.

I think OP you know this is a bit off and none of you wanted to confront her because you knew it was off so you went over her head

and your posting here to get reassurance you did the “right” thing

well you didn't - try having a chat with the women and getting to know her, understand where she is coming from

If it’s a quiet workspace then yes of course she should respect that.

I think this would be like working in a library and someone comes in making noise. I think this is the part people are missing. The PhD students are researching, it is a quiet space until the cleaner comes in. It isn't the noise of the bins it is the loud talking that is the issue I think.

We had this in our office, a quiet morning twice a week, no phone lines open until 10.30am so we could actually crack on with work. It was bliss, you got so much done.

It would have been far more normal and reasonable to look up, catch her eye and ask her to keep the noise down please.

But libraries now allow noise and even talking on phones because they’ve realised it’s monocultural to assume everybody prefers silence

You are doing a PhD and you don't know what "punching down" means ?

Wow.

Rubbish.

It's more convenient for you to report her because it would mean you don't have to grow a spine and speak to her like an adult.

Just ask her to keep the noise down.

You might be surprised the amount of PHD students who also do cleaning to help fund their studies. When you work out the low hourly rate, divided by the minutes it takes to empty the bins, it really wouldn’t be worth the researchers going to the Estate because you wouldn’t get paid for a quick task to empty all the trash you all accumulate. It smacks of self entitlement and feeling far more important than the humble ‘cleaner’
Get over yourself

Thank you.

How long does it take for the bins to be emptied?