This is Darrin’s story on his journey to becoming a head of operations in cleaning and hygiene services.
I can honestly say that cleaning has been my life, never having been a lover of school or all things academic, I could not wait to leave and get a job. At the age of 16, I walked into my local hospital where my mum who was a cook had got me a summer job as a catering assistant. What a catering assistant did, I had no idea? I thought perhaps, “oh I’ll be helping the cooks and chefs make some lovely food” how wrong was I. I was taken into a very small room with no windows. In the room where two very large sinks piled high with dirty pots, and pans. I was told for the rest of the week I would be in the pot wash. Not quite the start to my working career I had imagined, but now that I look back on it, it was a great learning curve for a first timer to the workplace. However, by the end of the day I had every pot and pan spotlessly clean and shiny, I had all the shelves tidied and labelled, all the walls washed down, and floor scrubbed clean. In the back of my mind was always my parents’ work ethic ‘If you’re going to do a job do it right’ I took great pride in my work in the pot wash and asked if I could stay there.
I later found out that the reason they put you in the pot wash for your first week was to make or break you. I asked my supervisor at the end of the week if I could stay in the pot wash, the look of shock on her face said it all, she quickly realised my abilities to clean and had me move around the workplace gaining experience in cleaning in all types of areas. And so began my nearly 40-year journey in the cleaning Industry. Even at that young age the driving factor for me was that satisfaction of being able to see the achievement of your work at the end of each day. I still get that feeling each day from my own job, simply because this industry has many challenges daily and you need to have the ability to meet those challenges head on and then sit back and reflect on what you have achieved. Not many careers give you that.
This was the start of very many happy years in hospital cleaning and then getting the opportunity to progress to a Senior Catering Assistant role by the time I was 20. It was a few years later and after a gap year break to Australia, I got an opportunity to take a position as an Area Manager for Cooper Cleaning looking after Building societies, this still let me keep on my cleaning side by doing cover cleaning but being mobile and working all over Northern Ireland I did not mind that, and I was gaining new skills in management which was great. It was at this time in 1998 that I had my first experience of BICSc Training, I was put through and certified on all my BICSc skills, for me this was amazing as I was then able to go out and set up my contracts to BICSc standards, my takeaway and something that has always stuck in mind was the phrase from it was the “systematic overlapping passes”.
From getting that start within Commercial cleaning and the opportunity to progress to management levels my whole life has been spent within the cleaning Industry working across many sectors. It has been this wealth of working experience that has given me the diverse Knowledge of the cleaning Industry that I have today. Working across so many different companies and Industry areas. I have managed national cleaning contracts for many blue-chip companies like Tesco, Sainsbury, B&Q, Specialist cleaning of Aircraft and large Police and Government contracts, also Events and Healthcare and even catering contracts. I have also had the opportunity to work within so many very diverse cleaning organisations, from the large global multinationals to the smaller and medium sized companies and family run businesses. Having worked across so many industry sectors and for all these different organisations in my career, it has let me understand the huge challenges that both commercial cleaning operatives and cleaning operatives face in trying to deliver a quality cleaning service. I am always at my happiest when I am out on the ground with my cleaning teams, talking and engaging with them and helping too. I have worked many cleaning shifts both night and day over the years and had to respond with my teams to many emergency situations, and I feel that when they see you’re ready and willing to roll up your sleeves with them it creates a lot of mutual respect.
I also class myself as a bit of a trouble shooter! It’s not the first time I have been out shopping and maybe a cleaning operative is using a scrubber drier and hear a sound that I know is something not working quite right, I always get that look of astonishment when I ask say to them about the noise and have the checked their filters or hoses or their blades and then got the machine opened up or got down on the floor to assist, much to the amusement of other customers. But the overriding thing that I always try to do when on site is to meet with the staff and say thank you. People in general do not realise that to cleaning operatives who traditionally did not get a lot of praise, thankfully that is changing, that those two words mean the world. In the words of John F Kennedy “We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives”.
For me, another very important key to all of this has been my involvement with BICSc, in my view by training our cleaning staff to BICSc standards we are ensuring that we have highly trained cleaning operatives across our industry and giving back to the cleaning operative a recognised accreditation that they can take with through their career. Like the old saying “what if we train our staff and they leave and what if we don’t and they stay ”. Well, if they do leave, they are taking with them accredited training no matter where they go and are taking and retaining best practice within this great industry of ours. By not training them, well that’s kind of a statement that perhaps you do not want industry best practice in your business, and you do not want to further your staff and promote a career within the cleaning industry.
I have been involved in the setup of several BICSc Training centres and it has been one of the most worthwhile parts of my career, seeing cleaning operatives get the opportunity to develop and learn and learn the proper ways of carrying out the jobs they probably have been doing for years, and the smile on their face when they get their BICSc certifications. Also, lately with the introduction of the BICSc Supervisors course I have been able to put forward members of my own team who have such great management skills and giving them the opportunity to partake of this great industry qualification being a cleaner they had no future. As Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. I have the privilege of being a BICSc council member now, I am delighted to be part of the council and to be able to help this great organisation plan and shape their future, its also great to be working with some amazing industry colleagues where we all have the common goal of bettering the cleaning industry.
People ask the question Is a Career in the Cleaning Industry? Yes there is, I am the live example of that, but you also must have people around you who you can learn from and who want to give you that opportunity to succeed in your career. I have been very lucky that there have been several people within this Industry who have given those opportunities and support.
So, what I would say to those young people who perhaps like myself who were not so academic and to all cleaning Operatives, you have a wonderful opportunity to have a lifetime Career in one of the world’s oldest and most satisfying vocations, and one that is now getting the long overdue recognition that it deserves.
Where would we be today without the Cleaning Operatives? Over the past 2.5 years so many have worked continuously through the pandemic, cleaning in very many difficult situations and at times potentially putting themselves at risk. Why do they do it? Because they are the most dedicated people, because they know their companies and their clients need them to be there and because they want to be there. To each and everyone who I have had the pleasure to work with and those operatives across the world Thank you for all that you do.
