The New Generation Of Janitorial Technicians
Michael Richmond
The Census Bureau reports that there are more than 74,000 janitorial or cleaning services employing more than one million workers in America. What has been a consistent business for more than twenty years is now in transition and part of the Green revolution. We have paid little attention to this industry as the workers come and go in the middle of the night leaving a newly cleaned building for the real workers who show up each day. It can be said that the janitorial workforce is a silent and forgotten part of the American workforce.
In the last decade, the Green evolution has become extremely important imposing new expectations, mandates, and rules that our businesses must incorporate within the principles of environmentally-friendly guidelines. We should ask who will carry out all these new rules, mandates, and practices. These rules will not occur by rhetoric, regulation, or well-wishing. This profess will take a newly educated workforce to implement the duties of making schools, offices, and homes that are "Going Green."
The janitorial workers have new and more lofty expectations that far exceed the traditional duties of sweeping, dusting, and dumping the trash. These janitors must now understand the concepts of new equipment, new chemicals, and new practices that are Green options. To move up to these new practices, janitors need more training than how to operate a vacuum or clean a toilet bowl. They need certifiable training and guidance in Green practices.
Consider that these people are the custodians of public health at a different plane than the medical workers. It might be said that our janitors are the first line of defense for protecting the public health. Of course, the medical workers are the last line of defense in protecting the health of our country.
Cleaning and sanitation is the most simple form of janitorial work. Chemical used in the workplace are an important part that dramatically affects all of us who work in buildings. Disease control, allergies and asthma issues, and chronic health issue are now a part of the cleaning equation.
It is finally time to realize who are the people that "Bring the Green." They are the long-forgotten workers also known as the custodians and janitors of the evening shift. It is a recognition long overdue to appreciate the people who work to keep our buildings clean or our health protected. Our Green theories become practice in the hands of these hard-working custodians.
Admittedly, this all comes at a price, buts it worth the small cost that it will take to empower these group of workers from simple laborers to trained technicians. Someone must take on the duties of making the Green era happen, and it will be the workers who have been previously ignored. I think these workers deserve the New Respect as the workforce that will make our lives better, Greener, and healthier.
Green Clean Institute offers http://www.greencleaninstitute.com/ Green Clean education and certification for cleaning services. http://www.greencleaninstitute.com/ Green Clean is the pressing problem of our day and this education course is the only federal trademark for the cleaning industry.
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