Conference 7.286::digital

    One day when I was working late a cleaning person passed by my office
    vacuming the hall floors. When I asked her why she wasn't doing
    the offices she said she wasn't allowed to - something to do with
    bonding due to security problems. As far as I know the only time
    that my office gets it's floors swept is when I borrow a carpet
    sweeper that another woman keeps at work. (I admit I may be wrong
    about this - but if it is swept it sure isn't very often.) I had
    come to the opinion that office floors were kind of like dusting
    your desk and chair - the responsibility of the resident.

    When my father was working for a company in western Connecticut, he had
    a similar problem.  He put a request through to Purchasing for some
    grass seed.  When they asked him about it, he explained that his office
    hadn't been swept in so long that he though he'd do something useful
    with the dirt.  A janitor arrived (out of breath) not too many minutes
    later.  
    
    Never thought I'd see it in the pristine world of high-tech, though.
    The company in question was still using an overhead belt system to run
    their machinery.  Of course there was a whopping big piece of growling
    hardware in the basement where the water-turbine used to be. 
    
    My dad was trying to find better media for tumbling needles.  He
    used to drive Purchasing crazy.  One time he ordered molasses. 
    Another time he ordered some thorns from Australia.  When he came
    home, his white shirt covered with black spots from the tumbling
    barrels.
    
    Nice to be out of Torrington and into high-tech.  Even if the floors
    still don't get cleaned, at least I don't come home with spots on my
    clothes (unless I've been changing the ribbon on an LA120 :-) ). 

    						Ralph

re .o

        My office gets a swepping at least twice a week, Granted I work in
Manufacturing and my office is right next to the module line in Salem, so
there is an effort to keep both the aisle, manufacturing and office areas
clean.  

        If it is a question of security, then my plant isn't aware of it
since I work in the new product introduction group for Salem and there was
various Nautilus and Scorpio information around prior to its introductions.
Granted the majority of the Company Confidential info was locked up at
night, people do forget from time to time.


Claude

We've had the problem from time to time.  I would suggest complaining to
Facilities (and encouraging others to do the same).

The floor of my cube is often dirty.  On the other hand, it's often covered
with piles of books and manuals and papers, so I don't complain.  Also,
I'm often *in* my cubicle when the vacuum cleaner comes around, and for
some reason the cleaning folks don't try to vacuum my cube when I'm in it!

Bob

    Also, complain to your management. In some facilities, the cost
    center decides how often the vacuuming is done. In other places,
    it is facility wide. Either way, your manager will have more success
    working the policy than you directly with facilities.

    My office IS a cubical, so the security issue isn't a factor.  Anything
    that need to be locked us is locked in my cabnet.
    
    I have been complaining about it, going to the nurse was an attempt
    to go at the problem from another angle.
    
    I do like the idea of trying to expense grass seed!
    
    Maybe this is one of those cases where persistance will pay off.
    Sigh...
    

	It seems as though it's up to the employee to make sure that
    their particular stye is kept to a minimum of sloppage (see note
    156 to find out what can happen when the facilities manager walks
    in and discovers your mess).

	The floor of the "lab" that I was refering to here, has been
    vacuumed exactly once (as I recall), and only after I begged and
    pleaded with house cleaning, my (ex) manager, etc.  Dirt on the
    floor is one thing, but the garbage was never taken out either
    unless I did it (no one else would stoop to such a thing)!

	Nobody ever seems to care until something happens which brings
    attention on the situation.  Then guess who gets blamed?

						-DAV0

All I can say is that the office cubicles in ZK are vacuumed regularly, and
that a few weeks ago, all of the office area carpeting was shampooed (including,
alas, the DELNI sitting on the floor that connects my MicroVAX to our
ethernet).

--PSW

	Maybe there should be some higher standards (as well as comensurate
    salaries) placed upon the role of the Sanitation Engineer.  My brother
    works at Mitsubishi and is constantly amazed at how clean everything is.
    Of course, at the Raliegh North Carolina plant where he works, they do
    silicon chip manufacturing (certain parts of the plant are off limits
    without a "moon-suit" - or whatever they call those things), and I'm
    sure DEC operates the same way in this arena.

	I do remember hearing stories about how much emphasis was placed
    upon cleaness by the distributors of the large Amdahl mainframes.  When
    they installed one at the Continental Bank in Chicago, the entire area
    was cordonned off days in advance, and a path from the delivery truck
    through the loading dock, into the elevator, down the hall, etc., was
    thouroughly cleaned by a group of people wearing white "moon-suits"
    like a scene out of ET when they came to take him away.

	When the machine made it's debut, the people who were fortunate
    enough to witness the event watched as this gigantic foam bubble
    encased object was transported to it's surgically clean destination.
    The unvieling was also a very tedious procedure (to avoid creating
    any new dust), and I think the whole operation lasted several days.

	The point is, that I'd be willing to bet that the people in
    the fancy "moon-suits" who were in charge of cleaning the hallway,
    loading dock, etc., are a little more qualified than the typical
    house-cleaning employee (I'm sure that any shampooing of Amdahl
    equipment was done for a good reason).

						-DAV0

    Yes, the offices at ZK are vacuumed regularly.  The waste basket
    crew comes along and when they find an office that needs vacuuming
    they leave the wastebasket outside the office.  Thus, you can request
    to have your office vacuumed just by putting the wastebasket out
    yourself.
    
                                                August G. Reinig

        It sounds like the dirty floors are the problem, but take
        another look at the air.  Your symptoms sound like the problems
        I traced to working in a cubicle near a smoker.  My symptoms
        occurred irregularly, but were discovered to match the irregular
        schedule of the smoker who worked in another facility most days.
        This caused me to place a smoke-free environment even higher on
        my list of priorities. 
        
        Did the air tests check for tobacco smoke?  Sometimes that is
        ignored because it is considered `natural' for the environment. 
        
        [Smoke related problems are discussed in RAJA::NO_SMOKING.]
        
        					B.J.

    Would you believe it, they actually vacuumed my office last night!
    They didn't get everything up, but hey, I'm flexable.  Maybe next
    time.  Apparently they are under order to pay special attention
    to my office.  That probably makes be "that ^$%$&&&"! 
    
    Today my office, tomarrow the building!
    

    I've noticed that facilities where customers visit regularly are
    kept cleaner than some other facilities. At MK02, they regularly
    visit the "New Hampshire Conference Center" located here.
    

    In WMO, they clean my office a couple of times/week, unless it really
    becomes a sty (large, movable objects all over the floor) in which case
    they ignore it until I pick it up and they can fit the vacuum into it
    again. 
                      
    -joet

    My ofice gets vacuumed nightly.
    
    In a former lab vacuuming was not done by "cleaners" due to sensitive
components; supplies; etc ... but that was the exception rather than
    the rule.
    
    Sound like the initial requiest is  management issue. If your immediate
    super doesn't care about looks or health, peraps the next echelon
    will. SOunds like agood time to test the "open door policy"
    that central personell said ALL manegers will ADHERE too !
    bob