"Older staff"? At least when dealing with someone who has held her position for so long, you must realise that she knows her job. There are some idiots out there, including her boss for bringing it to her attention.

A bit insulting, really, isn't it. She flies down to Sydney for her 25-year celebration on Monday so she's obviously doing something right.

Sounds like the cleaner thing is yet another global phenomenon... There's been complaints ever since I've been here that the cleaners don't actually clean desks and so on - if you want them wiped, you have to move everything off them because they're apparently not allowed to touch anything. Of course there's nowhere to put everything if you do take it off your desk, and since you can't unplug your computer and printer and so on, they have to stay in situ, which means the cleaners won't clean behind or around them for fear of touching the cords etc... which means that the exact places that gather most dust stay dusty... And even when you do move everything the desk is liable to end up just as dirty but in a different way, with lovely streaks everywhere from the dirty cloths they've used... So I end up doing it myself anyway, and wondering a) is no one taught how to clean things any more, b) what cleaners actually are allowed to do if they're not allowed to move things, or lift anything heavy (there's a prof retiring and moving out of his office, generating bins and bins of heavy paper rubbish - when we asked how we arranged for the bins to be emptied, we were met with indrawn breaths and "they're very heavy, you know..." - which yes! That's why the retiring nearly-70-year-old gentleman needs help emptying them! I just... don't know what they expect should happen if they "can't" do the job they're employed to do - it still needs doing!

As for your mate's grumpy customer - there should always be room for flexibility, but I'd also much rather have someone who knows what they're doing through experience - which by definition will mean they're older!

Stoopid people...

Oh yes, our cleaners have the same policy, and I'm totally used to cleaning my own desk and computer because on the few occasions when I've gone to the trouble of moving everything off, it still doesn't get cleaned anyway.
We had a heap of cardboard in the lunchroom, left over from the boxes our latest uniform updates arrived in, and the cleaners wouldn't take it. In the end we had to find a skip bin on a worksite and take it all there ourselves.

If they're not doing the job, and they certainly aren't, then someone else should get it. Yeah, I know it's difficult to find good help.

Our cleaners will not clean our desktops but they've been instructed not to do it many of my colleagues have "sensitive" papers on their desk. However, our cleaners do empty our bins, clean the floors regularly and do the rest of it.

I would have thought the bank would have been a bit more intense about all this because of the impression it leaves on customers.

Yes, well, our cleaners are supposed to empty our bins and clean the floors. I'm not actually sure what they do do. Obviously hoovering isn't part of their job description.

I'm wondering if they vacuum anywhere at all. This cocky isn't under a desk or anything, he's in plain sight next to my office door.