Cleaning Companies Impacted By COVID Pandemic And Employee Shortages

One type of business has the dirty jobs, but lately not many want to be that someone that has to do it.

A number of businesses use cleaning companies to clean and sanitize the workplace before, during or after work hours.

Cleaning duties include wiping down desks and counters, emptying trash cans and cleaning restrooms to name a few.

Sharon Kraft of American Maid in Sheridan says since the COVID pandemic started, the demand for cleaning as well as specific types of cleaning has increased, because businesses don’t want to be labeled as a COVID source to both their customers and employees.

“I think fear of course is a factor in that, and so it went from general cleaning type techniques in a building to sanitizing and scouring, so it was just a heightened level of detail.”

Kraft adds that cleaning companies are seeing their share of problems making sure there’s enough employees to do the job and bring in new hires.

Some are scared that the work may be an easy way to get COVID, while others underestimate the amount of work that has to be done.

“In what we do, you have to do it fully, there’s no halfway, so that sets an expectation in place that has to be met. I think people just don’t want to have to be held accountable or that responsible for something and when you talk about COVID, there’s a lot of stress related to that. I think it’s just more than a lot of people want to do.”

Kraft says cleaning jobs are physically demanding and attention to detail is important.