Cleaner interview for the council what to expect

[MySereneGreyBear]

Hi everyone, so, I'm currently a cleaner in a busy gym don't hate it but need more hours and preferably a better company but managed to get an interview next week with the council as I've been recommended to work for them as they look after their colleagues and offer decent holidays, sick pay, benefits etc.

Can anyone give me a heads up as to what questions they may ask me? I get quite anxious and sometimes don't articulate myself well when I'm nervous, it's for a family support building! Thanks 👍

Local authorities tend to be pretty woke and rignt on. Even though it may have little if anything directly to do with your job they may ask you questions about diversity and what you understand by the term. For example addressing people as they wish to be addressed/being careful not to misgender, etc. Councils are also very community minded and will almost certainly ask about working in areas where you meet the public. They are bound to ask about your ability to work in a team.

They will also ask you about health and safety aspects of the job which are important such as how you handle chemicals and cleaners. Also putting a warning notice out for wet floors etc. Things you probably already do in your job.

I would recommend you use google or one of the chat bots as they will lay the arguments out for you under headings. However its important for you to be able to answer in your own words and not just reel off what co-pilot said.

Others may have some more suggestions. Good luck!

@Friendlygingercat I did read about that when googling the questions they may mention diversity, so In my mind I'd probably just say it means that people are different, for example, ethnicity, religions, sexualities, genders, disabilities and should all be treated equally. I did health and social care in college so did learn about it years ago though, things are Abit more woke as you say these days!

I would also think up a couple of examples of how you have done various things,

Working in a team
Dealing with the safety aspect of handling chemicals
A tricky situation you had to handle

@Friendlygingercat Could the tricky situation be anything or have to be cleaning related? I've actually only really been a cleaner this month so not really had any difficult situations cleaning related, I was a food service assistant at Sainsbury's for years and then got made redundant!

It might mean “how would you deal with a difficult situation?”for example, someone being aggressive. As it’s in a family centre there will probably be a question about confidentiality and why that’s important

@foreverbasil Confidentiality is one i thought of, so would that be a case of not reading documents or if I see something not to repeat it and keep it to myself

@MySereneGreyBear the first thing I thought about was health and safety in terms of any chemical cleaning fluids/material, working at heights and preventing people slipping on wet floors etc.

I would take a Quick Look at the HSE website
https://www.hse.gov.uk/cleaning/getting-started.htm
https://www.hse.gov.uk/cleaning/topics/index.htm