cleanthoughts Ho Ho Publisher Micah Ogburn [email protected] Editorial Director Rich DiPaolo [email protected] Managing Editor Aaron Baunee [email protected] (518) 640-9177 Holiday Cleaning The holiday season brings with it unique cleaning situations and increased joyous tasks. Not Everything That Glimmers Is Gold (516) 404-4532 (518) 640-9167 Assistant Editor Amanda Martini-Hughes [email protected] (518) 640-9168 Account Executives Susan Pierce [email protected] Pat Harrington [email protected] Matt Moberg [email protected] Art Director Marty Harris [email protected] Graphic Designer Justin Lancaster Director of Business Operations Michael Perkins [email protected] (518) 640-9156 Ad Materials Manager Rebecca Wilson [email protected] (256) 715-0342 (518) 640-9173 (518) 640-9172 C Cleaning tasks and workloads are seasonal in that certain tasks are performed more frequently at particular times of the year. In addition to minding the natural increase of ice melt residue and sand used to prevent slip-and-fall incidents in win-tertime, custodial professionals have the added burden of cleaning up after holiday parties and addressing numerous other things related to such festivities. What has become known as the “holiday season” is the period of several weeks encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and the New Year — and Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us, which gained popularity thanks to the now infamous Seinfeld episode, “The Strike.” Often, educational facilities, office build-ings and various other commercial loca-tions will decorate their indoor spaces with figurines, nativity scenes, Christmas trees — or Festivus poles — and other celebra-tory decorum. But, these decorations create additional workloads because custodial professionals need to clean around them and use special techniques to avoid damage to surfaces. Things such as garland and tinsel on Christmas trees and glitter on wreaths require extra attention from cleaning and maintenance staffs when the accoutre-ment find their way onto floors and carpets before being tracked throughout a facility. Anyone who has ever encountered a molting Thanksgiving turkey decoration or an ornate menorah that is shedding its glit-ter knows how frustrating a few faux feath-ers or speckles of shiny metallic squares can be on an otherwise clean surface. Besides spending extra time to remove these additional soils, custodial profession-als are commissioned to clean up after celebrations. Removing food and drink spills from car-peting and hard surface floors is part of the day-to-day cleaning routine, but the holiday season increases the prevalence. Plus, with staffs shrinking due to attrition and layoffs, already overzealous cleaning loads become more difficult to keep up with when unforeseen situations arise. Throwing another wrench into the plan, the holiday season is often a time when project cleaning tasks are performed. Because some individuals take extended periods off from work to spend with friends and family and many educational facilities close for weeks on end, things such as strip-ping and refinishing hard surface floors and cleaning carpets via hot water extraction are performed in this short window of time. With the decreased number of building occupants — even the complete vacancy of a building in some situations — project cleaning tasks are more easily performed, as there are fewer folks to work around. But, when you compile all of the neces-sary tasks of the holiday season, the most wonderful time of the year can be rather strenuous. CM (518) 640-9164 CMI ® Administrative Manager Sharon Hillis [email protected] (518) 640-9163 Editorial, Advertising & Publishing Offices NTP Media, division of 19BritishAmericanBlvdWest•Latham,NY12110-6405 (518) 783-1281 FAX: (518) 783-1386 Subscription Questions or Inquiries Toll Free (866) 721-4807 Outside U.S. (847) 763-1867 or e-mail [email protected] Subscribe / Renew / Change of Address: http://www.CMMOnline.com/Subscribe Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608 Canada Returns to be sent to: Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 Corporate General Manager Barry Lovette [email protected] Vice President of Operations [email protected] Brent Kizzire Chief Marketing Officer, Publishing Services Group [email protected] Hank Brown Vice President of Business Publishing [email protected] Tracy Aston-Martin Vice President of Finance [email protected] Brad Youngblood Director of New Business Development [email protected] Matt Gallinger Group Director of Circulation & Fulfillment [email protected] Delicia Poole Circulation Manager Anna Hicks Circulation Analyst Lindsay Cook [email protected] [email protected] Editorial Advisory Board: Benjamin Tanner, Antimicrobial Test Laboratories; Bill McGarvey, Phillip Rosenau Company; Darrel Hicks, St. Luke’s Hospital; David Holly, The Ashkin Group; Kathleen Stanton, American Cleaning Institute (ACI); Jeff Cross, Cleanfax magazine; Russell Kendzior, National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI). Aaron Baunee, managing editor Send comments or thoughts on this topic or any other article that appears in CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® magazine, to [email protected]. CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management Online™ Service at www.CMMOnline.com 4 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • December 2012
CMM – Archives Dec 2012: 4
