Making the invisible visible

Back in March, when many of us were gearing up to work from home with the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold around the globe, our OCS frontline staff were doing exactly the opposite. They were gearing up to tackle the pandemic head on by entering the spaces we’d all evacuated in order to undertake deep and specialized cleans. 

Cleaning has become high-tech and when we say our staff are well trained, we seriously mean it. The pandemic brought with it rapid upskilling in the latest cleaning techniques, chemical application, PPE wearing and much more. Meaning that our teams of cleaners not only kept places hygienic and safe for the rest of us, they also went through many hours of training too.

Thank Your Cleaner Day is coming up fast on Wednesday, 21 October. I’m asking everyone reading this post to do just that – take a moment to thank your work cleaner, as well as those you come across on a daily basis – whether that’s in a shopping mall (remember those my fellow Melbournians?!), hospital, library, workplace or other public space.

The person you walk past cleaning a bathroom or handrail may be the same person who put their own health and family concerns aside to clean that exact space after a positive case was reported in that area. 

Since I’ve been managing director of OCS ANZ, in NZ alone there’s been a mass shooting, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption and a pandemic. Where was my team? At the epi-centre of each those events, helping, supporting and providing expertise.

We live by our OCS values – care, safety, trustworthy and expert. And I see those values displayed by our teams every single day. Thank Your Cleaner Day means a lot to me and to many others – making the invisible visible and giving praise where it’s due.

So, come on Australia and New Zealand – let’s make the cleaners of our countries feel just a little bit special this Thank Your Cleaner Day. They deserve it.