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Housekeepers keep smiling, even through Monday morning messes |
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
by ASHLEY DAVIS
Sports Reporter
Anyone who has lived in an on-campus residence hall knows the filth that can accumulate over the span of a weekend.
The housekeepers are off over a two-day school hiatus and somehow the cleanliness that is more easily managed throughout the week can be completely lost to overflowing trashcans, grimy showers, puke-encrusted toilets and other vile messes in elevators, stairwells and lobbies.
“The worst is cleaning spit out of the elevators,” housekeeper Carol Tester said. “Throw-up is bad too, but you kind of get used to it. You get to the point where, you know, if you’re going to do this kind of work there are just certain things you have to put up with.”
 Jeanie Pearson, a housekeeper at Winkler Residence Hall, stands with of a variety of cleaning supplies. Photo by Holt Menzies
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Tester has worked with Appalachian State University’s residential
housekeeping for 22 years, the majority of which has been spent in
Bowie Hall.
“I like what I do; I enjoy this type of work,” Tester said. “I like
being with the students… My favorite part is making friends and meeting
people.”
Appalachian offers many opportunities for housekeepers to advance and increase their skills.
“We encourage and market promotion,” plant maintenance supervisor Brad
Smith said. “We try to give them as many opportunities as possible. For
instance, we offer job shadowing in our administrative offices here. We
encourage growth and advancement but we still don’t have a large amount
of turnover. They seem to genuinely enjoy their work.”
One of the opportunities extended to housekeepers is, following their
probationary hiring period, every housekeeper is required to take a
basic computer literacy course.
At that point housekeepers are then required to manage their supplies and work orders independently using the computer system.
Offering such opportunities for skill expansion is one of the reasons Smith believes morale remains high among the staff.
Tester is a prime example of job satisfaction at Appalachian, working over two decades in the same position.
When asked why she hadn’t pursued advancements, she just smiled.
“I’ve thought about transferring to building services but they just
don’t get to work with the people as much. That’s what I like about it
so much is I just like these kids,” Tester said.
Jeanie Pearson, a housekeeper in Winkler Hall, shared Tester’s sentiments.
While Pearson has only been working in housekeeping services since
June, she already has found much of the satisfaction that Tester
emanates.
“I really enjoy it - it’s the students that make it all worthwhile,”
Pearson said. “Sometimes they’re a little discouraging when they make a
mess but that’s part of the job.”
Pearson and Tester are only two of the 37 housekeepers employed by
Residential Life on campus; both are part of the predominantly-female
housekeeping force.
Stadium Heights supervisor Ann Hagie said there are two male
housekeepers on the west side of campus presently, one of which is only
part-time.
Smith said he believes the abundance of females on the housekeeping
staff can be attributed to the fact that mechanical and ground working
positions predominantly attract the male applicants.
Gender discrepancies are not only found among employees, however;
according to some of the housekeepers. Pearson noted the difference in
upkeep of male residence halls compared to that of females.
“I can absolutely tell a difference. If it is girls there’s a ton more
hair thrown down all over the place. Boys tend to get in fights where
you’ll find tape or toilet paper everywhere,” Pearson said.
Tester on the other hand said it truly depended on the floor; she’s had
clean male floors and messy female floors on many occasions.
When asked about her most interesting clean-ups Pearson just laughed.
“When you find clothes lying in the floor that probably shouldn’t be
there it’s pretty interesting,” Pearson said. “And that happened just
this morning as a matter of fact. Just there in front of the couch. You
find clothes outside beside the building that shouldn’t be there too.”
For the most part relations between housekeepers and residents appear
to be amiable despite the messes that sometimes separate them.
“A lot of times you’ll hear them say, ‘Man, I’m glad to see you’,” Tester said with a smile.
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