Protecting Your Team from Disrespect. Part 2

Episode 91

Protecting your team from disrespect is part of the cleaning industry. It’s an undeniable reality that occupations involving manual labor are often overshadowed by misconceptions in our society. Unfortunately, it carries a stigma of being a job for those who are perceived as less skilled or less educated. This stereotype oversimplifies the reality of commercial cleaning. In my decades in the industry, I’ve witnessed this change. Years ago, that may have been true. But more recently many workers in the United States and across the globe have chosen this path. In some cases, part of that choice IS the low barrier of entry. Another is the demand for essential services.

Disrespect Over Language Gaps

Language barriers often add to the perception of “low value”. Although this can pose a challenge for team leads and managers, tools and resources to bridge these gaps have also been developed. We experience translation and pictograph tools making communication and employment accessible to those with diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Despite these advancements, the industry still faces challenges regarding respect and recognition. As shared in a particular training session, cleaning team employees often face disrespectful comments. These acts may range from “honest error” to intentionally hurtful and can reflect a broader societal issue of undervaluing essential workers. Lack of respect often manifests in harmful stereotypes and derogatory remarks. The incident discussed in today’s podcast was shared during the training session. This highlights a real-life scenario where an employee was subjected to a xenophobic comment. This situation underscores the need for a cultural shift towards more respect and appreciation for workers in this field.

Protecting Your Team and Your Business

Business owners in the cleaning industry find themselves at the crossroads of maintaining client relationships and defending their staff’s dignity. Many of my consulting clients face this delicate balance. It involves addressing incidents of disrespect from client-staff. Let’s be frank about this. Every time a vendor (YOU) take the step of addressing a negative incident involving your customer’s employee, you run the risk of losing a client. That doesn’t mean you have a good reason to avoid the conversation. I DOES mean you need to set the stage before and at the time of initiating this conversation.

Protecting Your Team from Single or a Series of Disrespect

If you’ve taken the time to do this early with your clients, they’ll understand you are addressing inappropriate behavior. This process requires gathering details and, sometimes, conducting investigations to ensure a respectful and supportive work environment. Many companies now have surveillance systems that aid in identifying such incidents, emphasizing the importance of accountability and transparency. Often, these are “one-off” events. When addressed in a calm and business-like manner, good relations are restored. In the event a series of disrespect occurs, the client may see similar infractions elsewhere within their own workspace.

Get Help

For smaller cleaning businesses, handling such situations can be daunting. Employing external consultants or HR specialists might be necessary to navigate these complex issues effectively. These professionals bring expertise in managing workplace conflicts and ensuring adherence to evolving labor laws. As these companies grow, they might consider investing in comprehensive employee handbooks and training programs to foster a culture of respect and inclusivity. Ultimately, running a cleaning business requires resilience and a commitment to employee well-being. Owners must juggle multiple responsibilities, from ensuring client satisfaction to maintaining staff morale. By prioritizing respect and transparency, businesses can create a more harmonious environment where employees feel valued and motivated. The goal is not only to provide cleaning services but also to cultivate a workplace culture that recognizes and rewards the essential contributions of its workforce. Contact me here when you need help navigating this challenge to your staff and client relations.

 

 

This Week’s Podcast transcript can be found below.

 

00:07 Ray
Joel, I understand the cleaning industry deals with a lot of negative perception. The assumption is that somebody’s cleaning because they’re not that smart. They’re not that talented, they lack certain skills in other areas.

00:20 Joel
Or they can’t speak the language.

00:22 Ray
They don’t speak the language. But for many who have arrived here, are here legally, and are working in the industry, part of it is because low barrier to entry.

00:31 Joel
It’s an easy job for people to take on. It’s an entry-level position. There’s entry-level positions in a lot of different industries. If you look at restaurants, dishwashers are the entry-level position within them. (For) janitorial and custodial contracting companies, the frontline employee is the entry-level position. Doing the daily cleaning, maybe not the floor’s carpet, it takes a little bit more skill. But the entry-level is being able to empty trash, clean restrooms, sweep, mop, vacuum, dust. So yes, it doesn’t require a lot of education in the form of you need to speak the language. You teach people to do the work. Yes, language can be a barrier. But in today’s day and age, there are so many tools that are out there to help aid in that. And there are so many different languages spoken. When I go around to different facilities to train everything from Spanish to Swahili to Russian. Ukrainian, I know. Ukrainian, There are a lot of different dialects that are out there, even within the Spanish dialect. There’s several.

01:35 Ray
You had just described to me that in the middle of a training session, an owner was sharing a story, and that was about how one of their employees had been told something really awful.

01:45 Joel
Unfortunately, yes, it happens often. As we talked, people are looking down upon people in this industry. And maybe they can’t necessarily speak the language, but most of them understand it. Look, I’m not fluent in Spanish. Most of my company is Spanish-speaking. I don’t speak it very well, but I understand it very well. I can almost liken it to that situation where people are saying something and they don’t think I understand it, and I do. This guy in the training was telling us a story about how his employee had overheard something to the effect that, “Why don’t you all go back to your own country?” That’s the ultimate insult.

02:22 Ray
Since everyone here in the States came from someplace else, we’re not talking about anything else. What we really are talking about is respect.

02:31 Joel
Respect. We need to treat everybody like a human being. Oftentimes, it’s not. It still comes down to, what does that person do? As a business owner, this gentleman, what do I do? How do I defend my staff when they want to all up and quit and walk out? It was nothing that I did. And keep a customer. Similar to another podcast we did, it’s that delicate conversation you have to have with a client. You have to call them up. You have to tell them what happened. If you can get dates, times, if there’s room numbers or it happened in the gym area in this place. Or it happened in the medical area of this place, even it could be as generic as that, it helps. Because in today’s day and ages, most companies have some surveillance going on within their company so that if they can narrow in on a time frame, they can at least see the people that would have to be talked to. If it was you and I in a hallway that happened to be identified as the two individuals, then we’re going to be interviewed and say, “Hey, this was the situation. What do you know about this? Oh, well, I heard this. I heard that. It was said by this person. It was said by that person.”

03:42 Joel
But a full-blown investigation does have to happen. Because laws have changed in a lot of states, and it’s considered a hostile workplace. And we’re not allowed to do that. As an employer, we’re even charged with how our clients treat our employees. Now, we can’t train our customers. But we’re held to a higher level that we still have to protect our employees from that type of environment. So, standing up and talking to the client and getting to an investigation, finding out the truth is the most important.

04:16 Ray
Okay. In advising your customer. Maybe the inside team leader, because they might have been employees, say they could be employees, or the cleaning company owner, the shift manager, whoever that person in a leadership role who received the story. They don’t really want to invest the time into this, but now they have to.

04:35 Joel
They have to. It might even be a good time. I mean, when you’re calling somebody like myself, who’s an outside consultant. More trained on how to handle this, maybe the cleaning consultant can step in. Or better yet, if you have a human resources consultant, similar to a company that I push all the time because my own company is Herman Parson from See HR & Recruiting, who is skilled at this and has all the letters of the alphabet after his name for all the different certifications he has. Let’s face it, most cleaning companies can’t afford the types of certifications to have individuals with that when they’re the small to mid-size company. Maybe as they grow, they can. But you might want somebody who’s more skilled at this and have that business owner sit alongside that consultant who’s guiding this investigation and talking to all parties that are involved, both with the customer as well as your own staff.

05:27 Ray
More likely to have a solid employee handbook with them as well.

05:30 Joel
Correct.

05:31 Ray
Joel, it’s a lot to take in.

05:33 Joel
Owning a business is not for the faint of heart. (No.) We deal with a lot of topics, and a lot of people do not realize the many hats that we have to wear. And the types of situations that we have to deal with, as well as trying to keep a very harmonious company and our clients happy and our own staff happy. Because when you can keep staff happy, everybody wins.

06:01 Ray
Joel, thanks for fighting the good fight, man. Appreciate you.

[00:06:06 Joel
Thank you.