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The
Dirty Deed
by Dr. Lynne
Curry
Question:
My supervisor handed every sales employee in our department a memo
last week. It seems that his boss was distressed that the
janitorial firm we’ve hired to clean our company’s public
restroom isn’t doing a good job. Apparently customers are
complaining daily that the restroom is dirty and smells horrible,
especially in the evening and on weekends. I work for a major
retailer and we have hundreds of customers passing through our
building daily.
Both bosses
decided that all of us employees get to add restroom
"maintenance" to our job descriptions. Nightly we get to
wipe down the restroom counters, pick up trash and sweep the
floors. Our company plans to provide us rubber gloves. We don’t
have to clean the toilets.
I’m grossed
out. I asked for a meeting with my supervisor and told him I
wasn’t a janitor and didn’t see "clean the bathroom"
on my job description and I wasn’t going to do it. He said that
these cleaning duties were necessary and fit under the "other
duties as assigned" clause.
I’ve worked for
this company for ten years. I was told that if I refused to clean
the bathroom floors, it would be considered insubordination and I
could be terminated. I called the Occupational Safety and Hazard
Administration [OSHA] office and asked what I could do. If you’d
seen this bathroom you’d know that some of our customers leave
disgusting items on the floor. The OSHA representative said that
my employer had to provide us with hazardous material training
before making us clean bathrooms since we might encounter bodily
fluids when we touched the trash on the floor. I’ve quit but I
feel sorry for my fellow coworkers who really need to keep their
jobs. What can they do? They have no recourse.
Answer:
Your letter raises several important issues. First, managers
damage employee morale when they ask employees to perform duties
the employees see as unfair or repugnant. Although I see your
managers’ point of view, that your customers need access to
clean restrooms and your department’s employees can handle this
without added expense if you all pitch in, they forgot to
calculate the cost of ticked off employees.
If you’ve
accurately described your meeting with your supervisor, he appears
to feel he has all the rights and your only choice is picking up
the broom or quitting your job. He’s wrong. In this age of
litigation, managers need to realize that employees will call
regulatory groups with grievances. You were wise to call OSHA and
your managers probably wish they’d made the call first.
Next, as your
letter points out, when an employer asks you to do something truly
unfair or dangerous, you have a right to question to the
assignment. Although most job descriptions include the phrase
"other duties as assigned," few managers stretch that
clause to include the cleaning of public restrooms. Further, if
the restroom is truly dirty, I’m wondering how employees dressed
as sales professionals can quickly clean it without having to
first change into other clothing.
One of the best
methods for getting a manager to reconsider an attempt to save
money by using employees as part-time janitors is to put together
a fact sheet outlining the "cost" of the savings. Thus,
prepare a fact sheet documenting the cost of the hazardous
materials training, the cost for hiring and training new employees
should other employees like you quit and the cost of the lost time
on the sales floor. Because you’ve already quit and you care for
your former coworkers, you’re the best person to present this
information to your manager as you risk no retaliation.
Your former
coworkers have several options. Some of them won’t feel as bad
you do about cleaning the restroom counters and floors. Some, like
you, may look for other jobs. If a number of employees feel
seriously offended and believe your management is open to their
input, they can meet with your supervisor as a group and say that
while they’ll do what’s asked, they’d like management to
reconsider. Many managers who assess what damaged employee morale
costs will rescind a decision that seriously jeopardizes morale
for a minor cost savings.
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