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?

@bettyboo9 I actually do have a cleaning job myself!

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.

Sometimes people can't help clanging around.
But....
No matter what job role you do using a mobile phone for private conversations while working wouldn't be taken so lightly in many places of work.

How come she hasn't been pulled up on this by management?

Or don't use the bins,

That's my attempt at out of the box thinking :-)

Just ask her politely - you know that thing humans do, verbal communication.

This!

A lot of we and our in your posts. Are your office colleagues as bothered by this as you, are you speaking on their behalf, or are you the only person it bothers and you are lurking behind them because otherwise you sound like a whinger?

Probably because nobody has said anything.

Yes you said you found it distracting that she looks like she’s talking to herself

so you could get used to people looking like they are talking to themselves - see them every day in the street multiple times

It’s her workspace just as much as yours…….

I think it really depends how long it takes. Cleaners in our office also have music on or talk on the phone, although only in corridors and not the open office.

It can be annoying, but not more than other colleagues having a loud discussion, and it probably makes their job less repetitive.

Ultimately, for us they're in and out in 5-10 min so not a big deal.

If it last for a while then I would raise it with their manager too (the same way we tend to have complaints if people take loud work calls in the open space).

And none of the rest of us, who use it all day, disturb others.

How long is she there for? I used to really like our cleaner at work, she took about 15 mins to do the bins, wipe down the sink and hoover and she and I would have a chat while she was there. Is she there for hours on end every single day?

Wow !!!
you are doing academic work -
you should expect a quiet workspace
a cleaner yabbering away on her phone in that environment is not on -
report to her line manager / estates
she needs training-
take personal calls on her break -
all this bollocks about do the bins yourself
put headphones etc
it’s just basic work etiquette- don’t have loud personal calls when you are working !!!!

You asked if you were being unreasonable, seems the majority think you are, but you don't really want to hear that, so why bother asking in the first place?🙄

Running off to report someone instead of having a friendly word with them first, is, imo, quite cowardly.

I don’t think they said it was loud - they said it was unsettling as she looks like she’s talking to herself

as others have said it’s her workspace too

So? She’s different to you and your other colleagues?

She’s not necessarily wrong!

And academic work is more important than other work?

that’s so stuffy

I know! I'm quite surprised at the responses to be honest. Lots of moaning from others here too but I'm the mug who's emailed estates. Politely and apologetically I might add.

I really don't see why you can't ask her not to talk on the phone while people are trying to work.

I am an academic. I have two things to say about this situation (only one is advice).

First, I’m amazed you are having your bins emptied. They stopped doing that at my institution years ago. Now we have to do it ourselves. So perhaps count your blessings that you are not being expected to do her job for free.

Secondly, in any institution, it’s the people who work in these ‘lowly’ jobs who actually make the machine work. Without them, we would not have clean, safe, warm workplaces and would have to do lots of things like data entry instead of research. Professional services and estates staff should be valued, not suffered.

No idea why your getting a hard time OP. Why does her work trumps yours? Your space is for quiet concentration and she shouldn’t be walking in and breaking the silence. Just because she’s doing a menial job doesn’t mean we can’t talk to her as it somehow insinuates we are putting her down.

We're grateful for all the staff. But don't want noise. It's nothing to do with looking down on anyone. It's about creating conditions where everyone can work.

Why were you apologising if you think she’s so out of order

I think people are coming up against your reasoning as it smacks of privilege, assumptions and my work is more important in our joint workspace

I feel the crux of it is probably you are more annoyed by the noise than anyone else due to your neurodiversity, and nobody else in the room really gives a stuff.

I'd probably also wager you don't get invited to many parties...

Christ knows.