Ever look around your office and wonder what the janitorial service might be forgetting? By the way, don’t feel guilty for doing this…after all, you’re the paying customer. As you consider the importance of workplace cleanliness we wouldn’t blame you for analyzing what may have been neglected. Since the suspense is already palpable, we’ll get right to the chase: the number one thing most janitorial companies forget to do is dust high surfaces above 6 feet.
That’s right- just look up. What do you see? Are the tops of HVAC pipes and ceiling fan blades covered in thick layers of dark-gray dust? Are the tops of picture frames fuzzy? Run your finger along the top of a door frame, did you stir up a dust cloud? One of the biggest offenses we see are air-intake vents. Take a quick peak- are they covered in dust stalactites that look as if they’re growing? These are all telltales signs of neglect. They’re also a red-flag that your janitorial company is forgetting some cleaning tasks within their scope of work.
Reasons Why You Should Care About High-Dusting
- Dust contains mostly dead skin cells. Then there’s dust mites, hair, pollen, bacteria, viruses, insect body parts, ash, soot, minerals and bits of soil. So…disgusting.
- For people with allergies to pollen and dust mites, an overexposure to heavy dust can trigger respiratory distress and health problems. Not good.
- Dust Laden environments often have poor air-quality.
- Mold can live and thrive in dust. Inhaling mold spores can lead to serious respiratory illness.
Diagnosing the Problem of High Dusting
Let’s be fair to the cleaners and begin by putting dusting into perspective. There are important factors to consider before rushing to judgement on the cleaner’s performance.
- Most commercial janitorial contracts do not include the cleaning or dusting of electronics. This includes wall-mounted TVs, computers and copy machines. This is important to keep in mind. If your aim is to maintain a pristine office, then you’ll occasionally have to wipe these things down yourself. In some cases your cleaning company can add electronics cleaning to the scope of work at an added cost.
- The cleaners don’t dust every surface, every night. That would be time-consuming and excessive.
- Dusting needs and frequency can vary depending upon how many people and pets occupy a space.
- It’s always easier to spot dust on black colored surfaces. A small amount of dust on a dark surface is generally not a red-flag.
- In most cases the dusting of horizontal surfaces 6 ft high and above is performed once a month.
- Only open surfaces are dusted by the cleaners. Personal items such as knickknacks and trophies on high-shelves and tops of file cabinets are not moved around. Another important thing to keep in mind.
How to Help Your Janitorial Company get Back on Track With Dusting
The best thing you can do is say something. If the dust is thick and visible, then clearly your workplace needs to be dusted more often. Now that you’re empowered with a more educated eye, you should communicate to your customer service person what you’re seeing. Thick layers of dust that you can finger-sign your name in is not acceptable.
A good janitorial company should follow up by assessing the situation and getting it taken care of. Additionally, they should take action to ensure that the problem doesn’t continue in the future. If your complaint goes unaddressed, if there’s a substantial delay, or if same the problem reoccurs in the future, then you and your janitorial company have a problem.
In conclusion, we hope this provided helpful insight as to the number one thing most janitorial companies forget to clean- high dusting! So the next time you’re assessing the performance of your janitorial company don’t forget to look up. In fact, dusting is a very important aspect of janitorial. In a future post we’ll be deep-diving into desktop dusting and maintaining a clean desk area. Until then, if you have added questions our service consultants are available to help.