Life after lockdown
Principle Cleaning Services on how their window cleaners are adapting to the new normal. sizable areas at cost effective rates.
Window cleaning teams are used to dealing with challenges – working at height is both physically and mentally demanding. Safety, working in all weathers, scheduling and achieving access are just a few of the challenges which we face every day.
The COVID-19 virus has provided something of a different challenge and, true to its traditions, the industry has not come up short in its positive and cheerful response – remaining pragmatic, cheerful and looking forward not back.
The initial emphasis has moved away from safety and towards health. Steps have been taken along with the rest of society to assess risk, stay at home when possible, stay alert and shield and isolate at any sign of symptoms or if there are vulnerable people who might be affected.
Mental health has been an issue amongst working men for some years and this issue is high on the radar – even more so during this period when staff have been told to stay at home, which is something they’re not used to. There have been many calls on Zoom, Teams, Google and all the social media sources, which we take for granted nowadays. This has been necessary to keep morale up but also to share ideas and look ahead.
Initially, there was a drive from the market to protect costs and jobs and many staff were furloughed and while some have remained furloughed for the duration to date, many others have returned to work at various points.
Since Easter, in mid-April, thoughts have turned to how we can quickly make ourselves useful again and get back to work. The industry hit on the idea that it is equipped with extensive reach and wash equipment and is in a unique position to adapt that equipment and provide sanitisation to
In a number of countries which have been ahead of us in dealing with the Coronavirus (Italy, for example), governments have called on various industries to help in keeping public spaces sanitised to stop the spread through cross contamination. Some parts of the industry began working on in-house, cost effective methods to sanitise external surfaces such as benches, balustrades, doors, machinery, vehicles in loading bays, external lifts etc, and, following some trials, found a method.
By owning reach and wash equipment we have been well placed to transport large amounts of deionised water, normally used for cleaning windows, and sanitiser in vehicles and portable tanks and to spray external areas providing protection against the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
There was a call in April – via a press release – from the Federation of Window Cleaners (FWC) to the British Government, to mobilise the country's window cleaners because they have the equipment to help tackle the virus in outdoor public spaces.
At Principle, we started looking at the practicalities and carrying out productivity studies, and we came up with a couple of different sanitising options offering either basic sanitisation or prolonged 30-day protection.
Normal sanitisers are cheaper and effective, but recontamination can be quick if that surface is regularly used.
The 30-day sanitiser has created great interest, not just in the window cleaning world. Property managers are reassured by the presence of sanitisation using reach and wash equipment but the nature of this work is that it needs
(
http://britishcleaningcouncil.org/2020/04/09/call-for-the-government-to-draft-in-window-cleaners-to-fight-coronavirus/) 72 | WINDOW CLEANING AND WORKING AT HEIGHT
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90
