Behind the shine: Cleaning operations on campus

Every morning, housekeepers Laura Dawson and Bertha Rose move through the five floors of King's Court/English College House. Armed with mops and detergents, they sweep the stairwells, clean the dining hall and sanitize the bathrooms. By the time they are done, the only trace of their presence will be the strong smell of disinfectant.

It is to this smell that most students wake up, yet few can pinpoint the exact moment when the cleaning process takes place.

Even fewer stop to think about the 505 people responsible for the orderly appearance of Penn's 256 acres -- a service most take for granted until it goes amiss.

"The staff performs cleaning functions based on the needs of the individual building," Director of Facilities Services Jim Bean wrote in an e-mail statement."We have many types of buildings on campus -- administrative, research, residential, recreational. We work with the building occupants to tailor our services to their needs within a given criterion of specifications."

Far less visible than the results they deliver, the staff does not seem to mind this anonymity. What they do care about is their working conditions, which many consider to be quite fair in comparison to the other situations they have experienced.

"I worked for other companies, and they kicked my ass. I couldn't believe it when I got here," says Graduate School of Education Housekeeper Nevenko Meznaric, who has worked at Penn for almost eight years. "Whatever we [encounter that we] don't like, we call our supervisors."

Housekeepers are assigned to supervisors, to whom they report on a regular basis. Supervisors come regularly on location to check that the cleaning process is conducted in an appropriate manner and to write down whatever materials the staff needs.

Two or three times a year, staff members are educated by experts on the appropriate use of the chemicals they handle every day. They are shown films and are given detailed instructions on how to protect themselves while sanitizing.

Staff members are all University employees of the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services.

External contractors, such as the cleaning services agency Penn Jersey Window Cleaning, are called in when a period of intense work is approaching -- such as move-in, move-out or alumni weekend -- to provide Penn with ancillary housekeeping services.

Regardless of the duration of their employment, all housekeepers on campus are required go through a background check.

With fixed teams assigned to each building, housekeepers usually work eight-hour shifts -- from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- on conditions that are determined by a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Local Union 115, the staff's union.

"We are a union with securities -- we have protection," Meznaric says. "We have a good dental plan and benefits, including 100 percent coverage for the family. I hope it's going to stay."

The average annual salary is $27,000, but many housekeepers are able to earn more by taking on extra chores assigned during the year's busiest periods or when other staff members call in sick.

"Overtime assignments are made at the discretion of the management using a variety of determining factors, including customer request and the coverage of absenteeism," Bean says.

Yet the extra hours are not assigned to the staff without their consensus; rather, they are distributed on the basis of the housekeeper's request and seniority.

"I get whatever I signed up for. I get to switch, to talk with the bosses," Meznaric says. "Nobody is going to push me to do what I don't want."

Housekeeper Jane Flite, who works in Houston Hall, says she was able to collect $33,000 last year thanks to her supplemental contributions.

Staff satisfaction does not stop at working conditions. They say their relationship with students is positive -- even if the situation is not always a rosy one.

"Most students are mindful, but sometimes they leave their food on the table, thinking that someone will clean up," Flite says. "I wish they would recycle more. In Logan, I would take it upon myself to separate the trash."

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