When I was a teenager, my first job was as a cleaner in an abattoir. It wasn’t glamorous, but I loved it. There was something deeply satisfying about walking into a space that was dirty, doing the work, and leaving it clean. Something had changed because I showed up.
That feeling never left me. I’ve always come back to cleaning, again and again. It’s not for everyone, but it’s always felt right to me. Different things float different people’s boats. I didn’t end up with a paintbrush like my old man, a house painter, as he had hoped. Instead, I picked up a toilet brush, and I’ve never looked back.
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Later on, I worked as a day cleaner at a shopping centre. Of course, I loved my job. But that’s when I started to notice how some people saw us.
You’d get the smartass comments.
“Hey, when you’re done here, you can come clean my house next.”
They think they’re being funny, but they’re not. You hear, “You missed a spot,” like it’s a punchline. But it’s not a joke to the person on the other end of it. And if you did happen to miss something (a bin, a bench) suddenly, it wasn’t just a small mistake. It was a failure. Your failure.
It sticks with you. It stuck with me. Because no matter how far I’ve come in this industry or how many people I now employ, I never forgot where I started.
So this newsletter is a little different. It’s not about sham contracting. It’s not about compliance. It’s not about pricing.
It’s about paying homage. To the people who push the brooms, empty the bins, mop the floors, and disinfect the lunchrooms. To the ones who quietly transform your workplace every single night so you can walk in the next morning and do your job without even thinking about what they did.
Some of our cleaners are career professionals.
They love the work. People like Cassandra, who lives with autism and thrives in routine. Like myself, she feels a deep sense of pride from walking into a space that needs attention and leaving it spotless. It’s honest work. It’s good work. It’s work that matters.
Others are students. Future accountants, engineers, chemists.
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They clean to pay their way through school.
For them, cleaning is a stepping stone. A way to build something better.
Even Pope Francis, before entering the priesthood, worked as a janitor. He probably didn’t know what he wanted to be at the time. He just took the job because it was work. A lot of our cleaners are in the same place. They’re figuring it out. And there’s no shame in that.
Still others are parents taking on second jobs to make ends meet. Or folks re-entering the workforce. Or people who’ve left their home countries and are just trying to build a life.
Each cleaner you meet has a story.
They have dreams and aspirations. They deserve to be treated with dignity.
They’re also human beings. They should be treated the way any of us would want to be. Paid properly. Trained properly. Given the right tools so they can take pride in the job.
Cleaning isn’t mindless. It’s not “grab some Windex and a rag” and hope for the best. It’s a skill. A craft. One that takes training and support, the right tools, and the right mindset. There’s a reason we send specific team members to clean glass or tackle specialty work. It’s not one-size-fits-all. Treating it like it is does a disservice to the people doing the job.
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Too many cleaners are seen as disposable. Invisible. Less than. I’ve seen team members treated completely differently the moment they swapped their business shirt for a cleaning uniform. As if the uniform somehow made them less worthy of basic human respect.
We hear stories from our cleaners all the time. People walking past spills without a second thought. Or worse, intentionally creating messes for someone else to take care of. That “someone else” is the cleaner.
And when a cleaner is underpaid, undertrained, and disrespected, they’re not the problem. The system is.
We’ve seen this firsthand. Joseph came to us after working as a contractor. He’d been set up to cut corners because that’s what the system rewarded. Bleach on stainless steel, shortcuts on the job, always rushing. We had to retrain him and recondition his habits. It took time, but once we placed him on the right team, he became an outstanding cleaner. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because someone finally invested in him.
Our cleaners are employees, not contractors. They’re paid correctly, trained properly, and supported with the tools they need and the people who back them.
We don’t just pay people fairly because it’s the law. We do it because we see them. Because they’re part of our team. Because when you treat people with dignity, they show up with pride. And that pride shows up in their work.
Is it perfect? No. We all have off days. Even our best cleaners miss a bin or two from time to time. But when they do, we don’t throw them under the bus. We support them, retrain them, and guide them. Because we all need that sometimes.
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And if you’re frustrated because your current cleaner is always missing things, maybe that’s not a cleaner problem. Maybe that’s a cleaning company problem. Because you don’t just hire the person. You hire the system that trains and supports them.
When you walk into your clean office tomorrow, remember that a human being made it that way. Someone stayed late or came in early. Someone wiped your benchtops, restocked your paper towels, and cleaned your toilet bowls. They cleared the way so you could get on with the work you’re meant to do.
If you never see them, ask your cleaning company about them. Ask if they’re paid fairly. Ask if they’re trained. Ask if they’re supported.
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Because behind every clean surface is a person who deserves to be seen. And maybe, just maybe, that person is working two jobs. Or studying for something bigger. Or raising a family. Or maybe, like Cassandra and myself, they just love what they do.
Either way, they deserve more than invisibility.
Your cleaners deserve respect. From me. From you. From all of us.
Subscribe to the In-Tec email newsletter. In it, I share what’s really going on in this industry, from how we work at In-Tec to the questions more businesses should be asking their cleaners. It’s practical, honest, and written to help you make better decisions.