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Who’s responsible of cleaning office on a small creativity business ?
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Osama,
I know! You must either be a comedian or one of Walter Biscardi’s disgruntled employees? Maybe you should ask him to put you on gardening duties? Preferably a peaceful place that will allow you to expand your mind outwards to new horizons… 🙂
Alternatively, on this day, which is mother’s day in many places, you may not want to upset Bessie the Cow – after all, this website would not have existed if it wasn’t for one sweet cookie who helped keep the dream alive – so do not upset her with sexist remarks.
Maybe a regular 9-5 day for all employees, where you take it in turns for one you and your employees to start at 8 for a spot of cleaning?
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
Osama, perhaps we are talking a cultural difference here, since you mentioned your pay in Euros, and from your name I could assume you were raised in a different culture than some in Europe, but I could be wrong there also. Just to be clear, there are numerous women (and a lot of men) who would take your comments really the wrong way, and they could even be your clients! From this side of the Atlantic, your comments are not what American values are usually all about. We tend (and not everyone here is the same) to assume that no one is above cleaning up after themselves, or keeping their workspaces clean. My assumption is, if I care about it, I clean it. Having worked in the UK, France and Italy, I understand that management is not often expecting to clean up the rugs, but you sound like you are a startup, and rules are a bit different on that.
Your answer that your workers are employees is the answer. You need to hire this out if you don’t want to do it yourself. It’s the cost of being a business owner and profiting from the business. They were not hired to clean up the restrooms and vacuum carpets, and they don’t stand to make any profits from jobs that a clean studio brings in (other than ones they are working on). The job of maintenance is an operational job that is part of keeping the studio open, regardless if you have any work at all! It’s a cost of doing business.
Your employees are only there while needed, and when done they could care less if the place doesn’t get cleaned up. However, if it gets too messy they might work elsewhere where it’s cleaner. So if they value that and you value them, you need to provide a clean workplace. And of course, you care about your clients, but the employees assume you are the ‘owner’ of those client relations. So it really is only up to you.
Cultural differences are hard to understand. As an example, I just was told a story last week by a friend from Brazil. He told me that the N word in English is actually the opposite in Brazil, and is as common and acceptable as saying “black person” is in the US, like saying, “If you are looking for Al, he’s the tall black man usually dressed well”. And calling someone a “black person” in Brazil is the same as using the N word in the US. He found out the hard way the first time he taught a course up here in a college. He was apparently rattling on about how a type of music was played by a certain type of Brazilian and noticed everyone was looking at him really funny. He got pulled into the office of the Dean later that day, and eventually had the whole thing explained to him. Needless to say, he was never asked back to teach (G).
I would recommend that you might consider a documentary on following a housecleaner or office cleaner through a week of their work sometime. You might find it extremely interesting and I would suggest that the people doing editing all day are doing a lot less strenuous work than the person cleaning the buildings. Here’s a BBC expose of the industry from 2005.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4259608.stm
and the documentary it describes. Available on Vimeo. You might all want to sit down and watch this together!
https://vimeo.com/45803001Al
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Wow wow !! … seems like things went wrong here ! It’s now a feminism issue !??
Well folks … ! I wasn’t talking about ” women ” as a gender !! I am talking about an occupation and ” specialty ” of a person in his life .. Thus : It doesn’t matter if she’s a woman or a man as long as it is his only job he/she has to do !
@Al : Seems an interesting film , but I don’t really have to watch that in order to value that job because I have no problem on working as a cleaner ! Again : As long as I don’t have to do any editing or directing or marketing or shooting or production jobs ! …
Actually I do clean my home office personally , but that’s me ! .. the question was : Do I have as a business owner to force employees to do something not of their job if I want to get the most possible business done ?
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It’s *so* easy to get misconstrued here. (G). The short answer to your question: Do I have as a business owner to force employees to do something not of their job if I want to get the most possible business done ? is No. It’s not their job. If I’m hired to edit, it means I didn’t sign up to clean toilets. Period.
Al
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Hey Osama,
I’m with Al on this one; if you haven’t specified in the job description that cleaning is part of the job, then you’ve got a problem.
If not careful, two situations that you may face:
1) Breach of contract.
2) Constructive dismissal, which involve said employee(s) walking out of the door, not having to work, and may still be paid their wages. Although a worst case scenario, not an uncommon one.All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
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Thank you ….
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What does the employment contract with these people stipulate, as to their duties? Did they know this was part of the job when they signed on? If this “other duties as assigned” task was spelled out during hiring, we really don’t have anything to debate.
If you can’t afford minimum wage cleaners once a month, you are mis-using the pro staff for tasks they are over-qualified for, putting the real, money-making work that much further behind, and not budgeting properly to run the business.
The cleanliness of a place of business IS important. To a degree. For those working there, it keeps up morale and organization. For visiting clients, it signifies an efficient and proper operation. But, don’t get caught up in petty things done only for appearance’s sake. Potemkin villages look productive, from a distance, but their real output… not so much.
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I had my office cleaned by ergo clean https://www.ergoclean.ca/ . They clean the lobby, reception area and the conference room. They also provide carpet cleaning services especially during winter as the snow, slush and salt keeps the carpets dirty.
Hi I am new in this area and I have just started out. Looking forward to learn a lot from here.
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Hi Elroy –
I was attracted to the Subject line of your post. I have changed my title from “Chief Engineer” to “Janitor” as can be seen at every NAB show for the last 3 years.When it comes to cleaning up someone’s mess – no question – I am your guy ! Unfortunately, I am not in Canada.
But I assure you, I clean up countless messes at many video and creative facilities.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Thanks Bob Zelin, that was really thoughtful 🙂
Hi I am new in this area and I have just started out. Looking forward to learn a lot from here.
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