Janitorial - Can we make them do it?
DW
3 Posts
I've visited the Employers forum many times, but this is my first posting!
My company is a manufacturing facility comprised of both hourly production workers and salary office personnel. I have an employee with the job title "Building Attendant" but he would be better known as "Janitor". My problem is that he takes an annual 3 week vacation every year, and each year this poses a problem as to who will cover his position.
Hourly production workers are often instructed to help out in other departments, especially when one department is hard put to make a drop shipment or when the dept is experiencing a slow down. This is an expectation of all hourly employees.
Our Building Attendant is expected to take his annual 3-week vacation in about 2 weeks and we have asked for volunteers to cover his position. Not one employee is interested, in fact, most have now adopted the attitude that it is beneath them. Also, rumor has it that the Company cannot require any employee do this job if they don't want to.
In hopes of dispelling this myth, my question is Can we pick an employee to do this job without any ramifications? Does Janitorial work fall into some special job category?
My company is a manufacturing facility comprised of both hourly production workers and salary office personnel. I have an employee with the job title "Building Attendant" but he would be better known as "Janitor". My problem is that he takes an annual 3 week vacation every year, and each year this poses a problem as to who will cover his position.
Hourly production workers are often instructed to help out in other departments, especially when one department is hard put to make a drop shipment or when the dept is experiencing a slow down. This is an expectation of all hourly employees.
Our Building Attendant is expected to take his annual 3-week vacation in about 2 weeks and we have asked for volunteers to cover his position. Not one employee is interested, in fact, most have now adopted the attitude that it is beneath them. Also, rumor has it that the Company cannot require any employee do this job if they don't want to.
In hopes of dispelling this myth, my question is Can we pick an employee to do this job without any ramifications? Does Janitorial work fall into some special job category?
Comments
People need to realize that there are always times that you have to do something that is "not in my job description." We are paid to bring value to the company, not matter what the role is for that day.
I suppose our real concern here is the position of "Janitor" and that the tasks involve cleaning bathrooms, lunchrooms, etc. We aren't sure if there is some sort of safety/hazardous issue attached to this job and then making an employee do this job if they don't want to.
It's one thing to voluntarily accept this job knowing what the job entails, but is it another thing to order an employee to perform those duties when they don't want to?
>appreciated! I'm not sure what CBA stands
>for...
>
CBA is Collective Bargaining Unit - unions.
Reassignment
The company reserves the right to reassign employees as needed. In addition supervisors retain the right to assign duties to meet whatever business demands arise. Employees are entitled to an explanation as to why job change is required. Refusal to accept such a change will result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
If there is no written policy precluding him from using his vacation time this way, I don't think that you can alter how he spends his time.
Oh, Welcome to the forum and a participating member.
PORK
Another consideration is light duty work. We have found that some of our employees on Work Comp looking for light duty work can perform the Janitorial duties without working outside their restrictions.
We don't use this much, but when there is the need it has been handy to have as an alternative.
2 points I would add are: first, you don't mention whether or not you are unionized. If unionized, the union contract would likely include work rules that may or may not allow these employees to be assigned "janitorial" work, even temporarily?
The other is, while you have the right/authority (assuming there are no union issues) to assign EEs these added tasks, those who raise the point of morale have a good point. If you must assign these duties temporarily to other staff, some kind of incentive pay is a good idea to make it more attractive to volunteers. It also might be good for morale and acceptance if some of the salaried folks would lead the way by pitching in to do their part.
Good luck!
PORK
My other thought is to put a schedule on the board and say that 2 people (or figure out how many people you have) will do this duty every day for 15 days. You can sign up for your day. If you don't sign up, you will be appointed a day. This way you "spread the work around" and not one person is imposed upon or given the gruge work. However, what type of results you will get will be another thing.
The other suggestion is to combine the 2. Have the sign up and get them to do the "light work" of emptying trash, sweeping certain areas, etc. every day. Then hire a cleaning company to come in maybe twice during his absence to do the heavy cleaning. I think you will find that folks are not as upset about this.
E Wart
The only way restrooms do not need constant policing and cleanup is if there are only two or three people using them.