The 21st of October marks Thank Your Cleaner Day, we take the opportunity to celebrate our Atalian Servest cleaning colleagues. Now in its sixth year, it feels even more important that we recognise our colleague’s huge efforts in keeping us all safe.
The phrase ‘Key Workers’ entered the public domain at the height of the pandemic earlier this year, as a way to recognise those working on the front-line fighting against the global pandemic. We rightly applauded the efforts of healthcare professionals as they coped with the first wave of COVID-19, but the services cleaners provide are also essential in keeping the world’s population safe.
Unlike many of us, cleaners could not simply work from home during the pandemic; not only did they continue to work on the front-line but, the demand for their work rocketed. New techniques, rapid use of new chemicals and technologies, changes to working patterns, enhanced use of PPE; cleaners have absorbed, upskilled, and deployed more change to their daily routine over the last six months than most of us could imagine. It is thanks to their adaptability and fortitude that large parts of our national critical infrastructure and services have remained open and functional.
Cleanliness and hygiene are vital for everyone’s welfare and are key to the reduction of risk of infection. Every day, tens of thousands of dedicated and highly skilled cleaning staff are present in our offices, our supermarkets, our hospitals, our transport networks, and our places of democracy to ensure that all of the built environment is as safe as possible for the next business day.
Much is being made of mental wellbeing and thoughts of the ‘new normal’ as we all deal with the current situation. Thank Your Cleaner Day is about demonstrating gratitude and acknowledging the hard work cleaners deliver.
Sean Fisher, Chief Operating Officer UK, and Ireland commented “In the Facilities Management industry, a common meme is that the cleaners are often ‘the unseen or invisible workforce’. At Atalian Servest we hope and encourage people to not only take the time to thank their cleaners for being there each day but to take a moment to contemplate the contribution this sense of security provides to our collective mental health. In this story, it is Covid19 that is unseen and invisible, your cleaners are the front-line heroes battling to ensure you don’t ever see its effects.”
