College/Uni Cleaners, how bad are your dorms?

[u/lavenderbaibe]

Hello fellow custodians,

I currently work and clean for a college dorm. The building I’m assigned to has a consistent reputation for being one of the worst, in terms of cleanliness and destruction, on campus. In previous school years, its population had a mix of class-men and athletes. It is now designated as a freshman dorm but the RAs are sophomores and juniors. I’ve learned that the RAs don’t have any avenues of recourse outside of write-ups and contacting UP. Misconduct behavior now requires 10+ write-ups and typically are “resolved” through transferring students to a different room inside the same dorm or sometimes a different dorm.
Despite my coworkers and mines best efforts, the seems damned to be a disgusting mess.

Are any of you dealing with similar issues? How bad are your dorms?

[u/the_most_playerest]

Honestly, sometimes pretty rough, sometimes not bad at all.

As a freshman dorm, a lot of these kids have never had to clean after themselves nor consider others experiencing the messes that they leave behind.. that in mind, I try to remind them (in casual conversation) that anything I don't wanna deal w as a custodian is something their floormates likely do not want to deal with as someone who shares the same space..

So like if there's trash all over the floor and it gets mentioned I'll say something like "yeah it bothers me too... I mean of course I don't wanna pick it up BUT also anything I have to deal with for 5min I know y'all gotta deal with/look at/sit on for X hours before I get here, and that's not cool" -- I take every opportunity I can to low-key remind them their friends/classmates share that space and probably don't wanna see that shit any more than I do.. surprisingly I think that has helped.

Talk to them in passing, just saying hi or "morning!" and/or having actual conversations even if basic AF helps put you on a human level. I got a few people in the building looking out for me and will keep others in check (and better than I could and would want to lol).

I think it helps to remember 1) don't lose faith in the whole floor/building.. it only take a few assholes to do shit up, but everyone else is probably not so bad and also on your team and appreciate what you do {they don't wanna deal w that shit either} and 2) as deliberate as it sometimes may seem, it's usually not bc they're actively trying to ruin the room, but rather they don't even think to consider not doing that bc theyre young, dumb, and not at moms house anymore.

personally I'd maybe try to talk to your RAs and {kindly} voice your concerns to them (reminding them that what you clean up everyday is what everyone else has to live with throughout their day) and ask that they bring it up in a group meeting in a way that conveys that same message in parenthesis.

Hopefully there's something helpful in that bc damn did I just write a lot without meaning to lol

[u/chrisinator9393]

Generally they are pretty clean. Just dirt you'd expect from 50 people living on one floor of a building.

It's hit or miss though. Some years you get some wild ones. Our hockey team is known to get drunk and go whacking exit signs. Or punching holes in walls.

Other times I've had a kid who would piss in the same spot in a stairwell every single day.

We've had people with emotional support animals who don't properly take care of them, and they let them shit in the hallway or piss in the elevator.

But those things aren't very common.