The Standard Issue 4 2023

MY CAREER IN CLEANING
MBICSc, JAMES REYNOLDS
When I was asked to write this article
by the Team at BICSc I was going to
say I came to the cleaning industry as
a career later in life, however when I
started to think back to the first jobs
I ever had, whilst still at school, they
would all have had cleaning in the job
description (if one of those things had
existed at the time).
The first job I can remember getting
paid for was as a Kitchen Porter in
a local hotel in Dunoon, in the West
of Scotland where I grew up. The
work involved a lot of spud peeling
and a lot of cleaning. It gave me my
first experience of using a dolly mop
– not a pleasant experience in that
environment.
THE EARLY DAYS
During my mid to late teens and then
again when I went to university I had a
number of jobs that helped provide me
with a bit of “pocket money” and also
to supplement my study grant, and
of course fund the significant social
activities that most students get up to.
Over the years I was a supermarket
assistant, council gardener, tennis club
assistant, café cook, shop assistant,
summer camp sports counsellor,
painter and decorator, football
steward, hotel porter, travel agent,
baker's assistant, and one of my
least favourites, a mini-bingo caller
at a Mecca bingo hall in the Gorbals,
Glasgow. The heckling that you got
from the “customers” if you called
rubbish numbers was legendary.
Many of these jobs involved cleaning
(everything from standard tidying
activities to carpet deep cleaning
and floor polishing) and they all had
one thing in common, no training for
cleaning tasks worth mentioning.
There was nothing about safe use of
equipment and chemicals, manual
handling, risk assessments, COSHH
or anything that we have all come to
expect as the norm in a commercial
cleaning environment. Usually the
supervisor or a colleague would just
take a few minutes to show you what
THE STANDARD
needed to be done and how to
do it. But to be honest I didn’t
expect any more than that, I didn’t
understand the potential hazards
and risks that I faced and it wasn’t until
some years later, after I left university
and started my “adult” career, that I
realised the value and importance of
high quality professional training.
ENTERING THE WORLD OF WORK
– PUTTING SAFETY FIRST
So I entered the world of work –
proper – with an Honours Degree
in Commerce with Information
Management and a Post Graduate
Diploma in Information Systems and
promptly took a job as a baggage
handler at Glasgow Airport. Although
being a “loader” was not in my career
plan at any point, an airport was one of
the most interesting and exhilarating
environments to work in and also very
dangerous – this was back in the early
1990s and airport operations in the
UK were still going through a cultural
change with regard to the provision
of professional training and putting
safety before everything else.
When I started in the industry getting
the planes away on time was the most
important priority and as a result
there were a lot of accidents and a lot
of damaged aircraft as ground crews
drove around like crazy trying to
avoid delays. Thankfully that has now
changed and operations safety is the
absolute priority for the industry.
I spent the next 15 years working for
the company now known as Swissport.
Initially behind the scenes in a number
of support roles covering everything
from Manpower Planning, to Fleet
Management and Health and Safety
before moving into Operations and
ultimately being appointed as the
Ground Handling Operations Director
for the North of the UK which covered
nine airports from Humberside
to Inverness. Now of course none
of those roles included a direct
responsibility for the provision of
commercial cleaning services but, they
absolutely all relied on the provision
of clean and safe workspaces - not
JAMES REYNOLDS
MBICSc Cleaning Industry
Council Member
something I consciously thought
about at the time, but that I took for
granted and expected to be provided
consistently and without fuss or
drama.
CLEANING – THE IMPORTANCE OF
GREAT TEAMWORK
It was when I moved to Derichebourg
Multi Services, a French multi-national
(still within the aviation industry) that
I got my first taste of Commercial
Cleaning. DMS had an Aircraft
Cleaning and Catering Company
in the UK and I joined them as the
Operations Director for the north of
the country.
That’s when I learned the harsh reality
that cleaning isn’t an easy job at all. It
requires excellent organisational skills,
good physical fitness, the ability to
plan and work calmly under extreme
pressure, and a very humble and low
fuss approach to delivering services.
I learned early on the value of getting
hands on experience – my time as a
baggage handler was a great source of
shop floor knowledge when I moved
into Ground Handling Operations
management. And so when I joined
DMS I insisted on spending time as an
aircraft cleaner to help me learn the
job and get a good understanding of
the services provided and challenges
we faced.
I have to say that I have never been so
exhausted at the end of a shift than
those few days spent on the ramp as
part of an aircraft cleaning turnround
crew. As a team of four you would be
expected to complete a full clean in
less than twenty minutes on an aircraft
capable of carrying 200 passengers
that might have flown six hours or
more on their journey serving dinner,