The Biggest Challenge In My Office Cleaning Career
“Hi, Sonya. I know it is your day off, but we really need you to come to the office. Could you be here by noon?”
I sighed into the receiver but answered affirmatively. I could think of at least three better ways to spend my Saturday than being in the office and probably listening to what somebody had done wrong. But I prided myself on being the consummate professional – going above and beyond the call of duty helped me rise from a regular cleaner to the most successful crew leader in the company. Not that I had any plans in particular – I guess being single had its advantages.
At 11:50 A.M., I strolled into the office with a bored look and a latte macchiato from my favourite cafe nearby – Pret a Manger on George Street. Only a couple of girls were in the call room, and nobody in the executive office. “If that is some kind of a prank, I will kill somebody today!” I thought.
“They are waiting for you in the conference room”, said Lilly, one of our phone operators. Jeez, somebody must have screwed up really bad! If we did something wrong, Tim – our supervisor – usually chewed us on the phone. If a customer complained, we would be called on the rug in Tim’s office and given a royal dressing down. But meeting in the conference room was a def-con situation.
But when I opened the conference room door, I was not prepared to stumble upon Tim, Beth – our head of marketing, and the big man himself – George Pickens, CEO and owner of the company.
“Come in, Sonya. Please close the doors behind you.”
Was I getting fired? For what?! I was frantically browsing through the last week’s appointments in my head when Beth slid a paper folder across the table. “Take a look at this.”
It was a standard quote request form printed from our website. A phone number for contacts, a name for further references, the address of the premises (why did it look familiar), additional details… Wait, cleaning a whole corporate floor of 9000 square feet?! I looked at Tim and Beth. “I am not in the mood for guessing games. I assume this is serious. You want to tell me all about it?”
“I told you she would be salty”, smiled Tim, and George laughed. “Do you recognise the address? I’ll give you a tip – it’s one of the skyscrapers nearby.”
George Street was Croydon’s commercial heart, featuring some of its most iconic office buildings in the area. But I really was not in the mood, so I put the folder back on the table and stared icily at my supervisor. George was the first to sense the temperature in the room, and he interfered.
“Enough nonsense. Sonya, take a seat. Three days ago, we received the quote request you saw in the folder, followed by a long phone call. It is No. 1 Croydon, and the potential customer is a multi-faceted international corporation. They want us to take over their overall office cleaning – every aspect of it. You saw the square footage, so I assume you realise it is an entire corporate floor.
You are our best crew leader, and I am sure that by now, you have understood the implications of this job for the company. I’d like to hear your thoughts on it.”
“With all due respect, sir, I do not have enough details to give you an adequate answer. My first reaction is that the job would take my crew’s full attention. I cannot see how we do this right and keep other appointments. Having said that, I see no reason we shouldn’t be able to do an excellent job.”
“That’s the attitude! Beth and you have an appointment for Monday morning. She will send you all the details the company has already provided. Do your homework and prepare your team for a wild ride. Ladies, I want this one in the bag!”
I spent the weekend doing research. Our potential customer was an international heavyweight in marketing consulting, taking the entire 9th floor of the No. 1 Croydon office skyscraper. When Monday came, Beth and I headed for one of the most important assignments in our careers. The premises were everything you would expect from a successful corporation – neat, perfectly ordered, cutting-edge, with that sterile air of money-back self-aggrandisement. The office manager who welcomed us – a sharp-looking lady in her early forties – obviously knew her stuff. She asked all the right questions, knew all the numbers, and made it clear she expected nothing but top quality of service.
All throughout the visit, I was making mental notes in my head. Tiled floors, so no carpet cleaning except in the corporate cafeteria and the CEO’s office; abseiling rope access for the exterior window cleaning; spacious restrooms that would require daily sanitary treatment and constant replenishing of janitorial supplies; 24 single working stations and six corner offices, a large conference room and a receptionist desk. Bottom line – easily the biggest office cleaning job we would have ever taken.
“Your colleague is very silent”, the office manager noticed, talking to Beth.
“I am sorry, Ma’am. I do the hard work, my colleague talks”, I responded.
She allowed herself the slightest trace of a smile, and we headed for her office. It took her and Beth another thirty minutes to finish the deal – not surprisingly, it was the most significant quote in our company’s history.
For all its pros, the deal also had its disadvantages, at least from my perspective. The scheduling was tricky – because the customer had business contacts on four continents, the working hours were fluid. It meant we had to adjust our daily tasks accordingly and plan the more substantial weekly chores for the weekend. I knew my team members would not be wild about the prospect.
“They will be when they see their bonuses, ” remarked Beth afterwards, giving me a high-five. “You take it from here, sister! Bring us home!”
The first two weeks on the new assignment were easily the most nerve-wracking in my career. But I soon realised the anxiety was internal – my team was doing a fantastic job despite my constant worries. Furthermore, the office manager (Susan, as she insisted on me calling her) turned out to be a very easy person to work with – we came up with a detailed spreadsheet covering all cleaning chores and agreed to supervise their fulfilment. Within a month, the system was operating like a well-oiled machine, leaving nothing to chance. While the amount of details was staggering, once we put them in a task sheet, they did not look so overwhelming – just another box to tick when you finish a chore.
I spent eighteen months on this assignment before the company decided to relocate to a new office in Paris (Brexit might have had something to do with it). The most important lesson I learnt was that size does not necessarily mean difficulty – and if you have the right team, you can achieve everything.