The Janitors' Closet

What's happened to America's public restrooms?

Due to my last post, regarding my janitorial background, I seem to be thinking about public restrooms.

An often overlooked aspect of a city's livability, and thus civility, is the availability of public toilets.  If one is not at one's home or office, and not patronizing a particular business, one is often out of luck.  And it's a bit of an imposition, and an economic hardship, to require a shop or restaurant to open its restrooms to general street traffic.  Here's an interesting article out of Marketplace, that includes the following:

"In the middle of the twentieth century, public toilets were relatively common in the United States. For the most part, people had to pay for the stalls, which opened with coins, while urinals were free. But with rising feminist sentiments in the 1970s, people started to recognize this arrangement as sexist, since it meant that women had to pay, while men did not. Over the following decade, the grassroots organization Committee to End Pay Toilets in America succeeded in getting bans on pay toilets in many states, and the late March Fong Eu, California secretary of state from 1975 to 1994, smashed a porcelain toilet with a sledgehammer on the steps of the State Capitol.

"The banning of pay toilets had an unintended outcome. Instead of free public toilets for all, public toilets pretty much disappeared from American cities, since cities found it expensive and difficult to keep them safe and clean. (In Europe, where there was no such movement, pay public toilets persist, as they have since as far back as Roman times.)"

Shiny faucets

My long ago sales manager reminded me of this; had not thought of it in years.

When folks with a long time in the janitorial field, particularly in the operations end, find themselves washing up in a public restroom, they tend to automatically wipe the water spots from the faucet and handle.  Perhaps a commendable habit, but it can still gain you unwanted notice.

My sales manager went on to a career in high end commercial real estate.  He tells of visiting a restroom at our Phoenix Country Club, with a couple of the local real estate magnates, and finding himself wiping down the fixture.  To a couple of bemused glances.

He'd been well trained.

A great innovation whose time has not yet come

Glancing through several issues of the three janitorial industry trade journals to which we subscribe, I noticed a recurring theme.  In illustrations of folks sanitizing surfaces - restroom counters, office and school desks, lunchroom tables, elevator control panels - the  cleaner and/or disinfectant is always being applied with a cloth, bunched up in the hand.  And, given the times, there were a lot of articles, and pictures, on disinfection.

Key in cleaning, and in disinfecting, such surfaces is in "wall-to-wall" coverage, and uniformity of solution application.  You don't disinfect without ample dwell time (a minute or two with a decent disinfectant), and certainly not in any areas missed.  In turn, the key in achieving even, wall-to-wall application is using some sort of rigid frame, with cloth or pad attached.  A cloth in the hand does not suffice. Years back, we used both microfiber floor "flat-mops" and 16" window washing applicators for such tasks.  Both were a bit tricky to handle, and a bit large, but much preferable to a waded up cloth, and time saving as well.

Close to the start of the pandemic, a consultant introduced us to Sphergo's tool.  The pad is 11" long, quite convenient for office and restroom surfaces; the hand grip is an ergonomic tennis ball sized sphere (hence, I gather, the name); and, an extension pole can be affixed to the hand grip as needed. We got a bunch, and moved immediately from dry dust wiping of desks and other surfaces to damp wiping with the Sphergo tool and a hydrogen-peroxide based cleaner/sanitizer.  In generally less time that it used to take us to detail dust, we could dust, clean and sanitize (and with ample dwell time, disinfect) not only the desk or file cabinet top, but the sides as well.  We needed to ask a bit of client cooperation in limiting desk clutter, but with the threat of Covid, that turned out to be an easy sell.  A great benefit for both us and our clients.  The sort of innovation that ought to spread throughout the industry, immediately.

But, back to the trade journal pictures of hands and cloths.  Perhaps they were just using old photos.  Coincidentally, I had to order some more pads from my supplier (one of the major janitor supply outfits in the region).  They had none on hand; they had to order a delivery from the factory. Turns out our supplier don't usually stock any; the last order they'd had was back in June.  Of 2020.

Looks like few in the industry use them; it's not just the trade journals that have missed the innovation.  

Hospital acquired infections are up - thanks to Covid.

Too much focus on the pandemic has lead to an uptick in hospital acquired infections, according to research from the CDC, as noted by our friends at Cleaning and Maintenance Management.

“Several factors likely contributed to the increases in several categories of HAI, among them, the fact that hospital leadership and staff were laser-focused on the pandemic,” write the authors of an accompanying editorial. “As a discipline, we need to develop strategies that can be effective in maintaining the highest possible quality of infection prevention and control activities while still supporting a pandemic response.”

Makes sense.  I'd also suspect that overstressed facilities and staff would contribute to the problem - quite significantly.

Going in for my flu shot next week.  I'm fully vaccinated against Covid, as are most of my people (we do a good deal of Covid remediation), but I don't much want to visit a hospital for any reason these days.

Online reviews

A note from one of my longtime Board members, something many of us should look at:

Fake Online Reviews 

I'll start this letter with the quote; "This is why we can't have nice things".  That line was first made popular in the early '90s by stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone, and she later attributed its origin to her mother. 

Now we're ready for my comment on the story linked below about fake and malicious online reviews. 

Social dysfunctionality is affecting more people everywhere... the story below relates how some people don't know how to use their available freedoms and power on the internet wisely.  Unchecked, they will probably lose some of those freedoms, costing others those freedoms as well, if they don't wreck the community first. 

Has your business been affected by this practice? 

Who's willing to take responsibility, and find ways to alter this course? 

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/fake-review-attack-on-portland-businesses/283-9c4ae64b-d90a-477e-9b80-0f7f5e2f7984

A quick look at indoor air quality, and sanitation

Given the primary transmission means of Covid-19 - airborne - a bit of thought on indoor air quality generally seems a topical idea.

A bit ago, I was asked for a quote on nightly janitorial service, for a largish distribution center pretty close to my office in downtown Phoenix.  They currently have the folks who do cleaning and miscellaneous chores in the warehouse catch the office cleaning when (and if) they finish in the warehouse, with predictable results: flu and colds traveling through the office, various breathing issues, and so on.  And lots of dust.

The vacuum (when used, which seems not very often) is an ancient, unfiltered model.  No thought has been give to chemicals or methods used to clean and disinfect the restrooms, let alone office touch points.  We talked a bit about the usual areas - drinking fountain and sink handles, the fridge and microwave doors, door handles generally.  The administrator I met with allowed that she had a box of sanitizing wipes in her desk, that she uses to wipe down her own desk, but had not thought of having someone use it repeatedly during the day, on common area touch points, at least during flu season.  All in all, it seems a bit surprising that the office staff retains any level at all of good health.

Couple other areas I've chanced across over the years that I should have mentioned: the kitchen sponge or dish rag, a superb repository for pathogens, can be sanitized by a couple minutes in the microwave; do so often.  Second, the water reservoir on the coffee maker can grow lots of neat stuff; run vinegar through it (and then rinse, at least before making your own coffee) regularly.

We clean for health, disinfecting restrooms and lunchrooms, and sanitizing all the touch points mentioned above, and then some; also, we vacuum using HEPA filtered vacuums.  But we're only there once per day.  A bit of care periodically during the work day can perform wonders.

Given the primary transmission means of Covid-19 - airborne - a bit of thought on indoor air quality generally seems a topical idea.

A bit ago, I was asked for a quote on nightly janitorial service, for a largish distribution center pretty close to my office in downtown Phoenix.  They currently have the folks who do cleaning and miscellaneous chores in the warehouse catch the office cleaning when (and if) they finish in the warehouse, with predictable results: flu and colds traveling through the office, various breathing issues, and so on.  And lots of dust.

The vacuum (when used, which seems not very often) is an ancient, unfiltered model.  No thought has been give to chemicals or methods used to clean and disinfect the restrooms, let alone office touch points.  We talked a bit about the usual areas - drinking fountain and sink handles, the fridge and microwave doors, door handles generally.  The administrator I met with allowed that she had a box of sanitizing wipes in her desk, that she uses to wipe down her own desk, but had not thought of having someone use it repeatedly during the day, on common area touch points, at least during flu season.  All in all, it seems a bit surprising that the office staff retains any level at all of good health.

Couple other areas I've chanced across over the years that I should have mentioned: the kitchen sponge or dish rag, a superb repository for pathogens, can be sanitized by a couple minutes in the microwave; do so often.  Second, the water reservoir on the coffee maker can grow lots of neat stuff; run vinegar through it (and then rinse, at least before making your own coffee) regularly.

We clean for health, disinfecting restrooms and lunchrooms, and sanitizing all the touch points mentioned above, and then some; also, we vacuum using HEPA filtered vacuums.  But we're only there once per day.  A bit of care periodically during the work day can perform wonders.

A gentle push in the right direction

A few years back, I read and much enjoyed "Nudge", by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, respectively an economist at the University of Chicago and a Law Professor at Harvard.  Essence of their argument (from my perspective) is that, by presenting information and options, and organizing decision making processes optimally, one can gently guide ("nudge") folks into decisions that will work better for them, without applying coercion.

I provide janitorial service in Phoenix AZ.  I quote a lot of janitorial jobs where the current provider is doing as perfectly adequate job, according to his somewhat limited specs.  The facility might look less than optimal because the carpet needs to be cleaned, or the exterior windows washed, or the VCT burnished.  None of these "periodic" services, or cleaning supplies, are in the specs, but might well be available (for extra billing) should the customer call.  The customer doesn't call - perhaps he's too busy, or forgotten what's not in the specs - so the periodic work does not happen, the appearance of the building deteriorates, and the janitorial service forgoes a bit of extra revenue.  Because the facility looks less than ideal (because of the dirty carpet, etc.) I'm there bidding on the current fellow's job.

In quoting a job, we generally give the prospective client two prices - one for basic janitorial (but with our health, security and indoor air quality programs built in) and a second price for a bundle of "periodic" services - perhaps a bi-weekly burnishing, an as-needed scrub and refinish, a quarterly carpet cleaning, monthly windows, and a quarterly ceramic or stone floor scrub.  One monthly price for the bundle, rolled into the monthly bill.  We optimize the frequencies, so the carpet and tile are never trashed, and we can do more of a maintenance than a restorative job (cheaper for us, cheaper for the client).  We schedule the jobs well in advance, and can thus even out work loads.  The client gets the same bill every month, so doesn't have to budget, or get approved, extra charges.  The client never has to remember to call to order a job.  And the facility looks good ongoing.

We "nudge" (never require) the prospective client to take the "full service" package.  It's better for him - less hassle, better looking facility; it's better for us - for the same reasons

A bit of neglect. Just a bit.

We're cleaning a large industrial facility out by one of the east Valley airports.  Nice modern facility, that the previous janitorial service had let go, for so long that the client had more or less forgotten what a clean facility might look like.  We spent the first couple of nights bringing the routine janitorial up to speed (one can now see the paint on the walls around the Bradley sinks in the shop), and then rolled into floor work.  (We generally include periodic floor and window work as part of our ongoing service and billing- burnishing and refinishing VCT, carpet cleaning and protecting, ceramic, stone and concrete scrubbing, and so on.)

The worst part, appearance wise, involved lots of junked up textured ceramic, in office and shop lunchroom areas; took us a couple of nights to scrub.  Then we addressed office carpet cleaning, and some shop restroom concrete.  Last night, we finished the concrete and got into carpet cleaning in a couple of small shop areas.

Received this from the client's Quality Supervisor, this morning:

"...Also, kudos to your team that shampooed the quality office carpet last night! I have never seen the carpet look this good, great job!"

Always with the stories (you accumulate a few in 40-plus years in the industry), I responded:

"Glad the quality office looks better. We’ve fooled with worse.  Had a small place years back – offices of a trash collection firm – located right down at the dump.  No dumpster for the trash – we were supposed to open the back door and toss it.  They had a couple of back rooms with so much gunk in (and on top of) the carpet (and enough oil that it was kind of shiny) that my folks thought it was really grubby tile, at first…."

True story.  These days, we try to stick with rather more upscale clients, like the industrial one referenced.

(Top photo is the before, bottom the after.  As usual, the regular lines are lay of the knap from the extractor; when the carpet has dried, we can vacuum it to pull out the lines.)

 

Flood clean-up

While much of the country suffers high temperatures and drought, here in Phoenix we're having our usual summer monsoon season.  And, as usual, neither our trees nor our roofs are ready for it.

I spent yesterday evening chain sawing fallen tree limbs in my backyard and my neighbors; meanwhile, I had my service techs do preliminary flood clean-up work in a cardiovascular facility to which we provide janitorial service.  Multiple points in the roof gave way, bringing down ceiling tole and insulation throughout the office.

While there is no asbestos to contend with (too recent construction), the fiberglass insulation is rather nasty stuff, so we used masks, goggles and gloves, with bunny suits available if needed, all on our vans as a result of ongoing Coronavirus electrostatic disinfection, which we've offered to clients and the rest of the commercial community since quite early in the pandemic.

Looks like the job went well; the contractor has baseboards to replace, at a minimum.

Belt and suspenders

Just caught a radio interview of another fellow in my industry, the commercial janitorial field.  What seemed to motivate him the most was the many lessons he'd learned from mentors, clients, and others over the years.

One lesson that's influenced me, both in business and life generally, was from a senior fellow at Walsh Brothers, in years past a major Phoenix institution.  He suggested, metaphorically, wearing both belt and suspenders.  Always be prepared, with a back up.  Always have a "what if" plan.  

Several weeks ago, one of my floor techs called late on a Friday evening.  Fridays, we don't provide much service; most of our weekend clients are cleaned later on Sunday,  So, Fridays, my operations manager is off.  Not much call for him.  So I cover any emergencies.

My tech, getting his work out of the way early, had to limp his van onto the side of the road, with a front wheel half disconnected and wedged into the wheel well, due to a snapped connecting rod.  I ran over, and called our tow company. The first driver, in a standard flatbed tow truck, could not winch our van up onto the deck, due to the non-functioning wheel.  By the time his more experienced collaborator arrived, got it loaded, and dropped it at my garage, I had a couple of hours in.  Ran my tech over to our office to pickup our spare van (back up #1).  Dead battery, due to age and doubtless sitting too long.  Jumper cables (backup #2) did not suffice, nor did the power station (back up #3) - just too old a battery.  The back up spare van (back up #4) which I keep at my home, just down the street from the office, started just fine.  Good thing, too.  Back up #5  is my personal pickup.  We have no back up #6.  It's hard to carry a floor buffer on a city bus.

In this world, one needs belt, suspenders, and then some.