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University Daily Kansan, December 4, 1980
Housekeeping staff still vexed by labor troubles
By JANE NEUFELD Staff Reporter
Last year at this time, the KU custodians were battling their management. One year later, the department has new management.
But the custodians and the management still aren't seeing eye-to-eye.
"I think our morale has gotten higher since I got on board," said Dick Bivens, associate director of Facilities Operations in charge of housekeeping.
"I really don't think that anyone's interested in us," said Maggie Cosey, a night custodian on the fourth floor of Wescoe Hall. "You just clock in and clock out, and nobody really cares. It's really getting to be a drag."
The custodians' main complaints are overwork, lack of representation in the department and the new guidelines concerning absenteeism and tardiness.
BIVENS SAID he had improved employee discipline and training and had increased communication between labor and management.
the absentee and tardiness
guidance were necessary to maintain
discipline, help
"At the time that I started, there was no discipline," Bivens said. "Now we explain very fully what we expect of them."
He said the department was attracting better quality employees because it's spreading that the management expects
Since his arrival, Bivens said, absenteeism has dropped from more than 20 percent to about 10 percent of it. Also had been as high as 45 percent, in half.
In addition, he said, he has introduced regular half-hour training sessions to show employees how to use the new software. He also initiated weekly meetings with supervisors instead of monthly ones and restocked equipment that had been allowed to run low by the previous management, American Management Group.
Bivens said that he hoped to continue improving the department, and that the institution of follow-up inspections of buildings was a top priority.
THE HOUSEKEEPING department, in the meantime, is still in flux as the transition between AMS and Bivens progresses.
Last year, the custodians charged AMS with overworking employees and harassing them into nuisance.
Thomas Anderson, director of Facilities Operations, said the housekeeping department was still recovering from bitter disagreements with AMS that left some employees off the job and hostile to their management.
The custodians formed the Custodian Action Committee in October 1979 to reform the school.
The University did not renew its two-year contract with AMS in December 1979 and announced it would run its own housekeeping department.
Bivens took charge of the department on Feb. 4.1980.
Bivens said the University was better off running its own department.
of thinking its own dept has,
"I think that if they had been successful, they would still be here," Bivens says about AMS.
"The they just expect too much of every janitor here," said Alfreda Rayton, a night custodian on the first floor of Strong Hall. "If Bivens came in and he was sitting on the second week, he'd think twice about the amount of work he's putting on us."
FEW CUSTODIANS call for the return of the AMS, but there are some faults.
Bivens said the department used engineering principles and time studies to determine the size of the custodial staff.
"Our staff is adequate," he said. "We need further refinements as to where people are working."
Sarah Coffelt, a fourth and fifth floor daytime custodian at Fraser Hall, said she thought her area was too large.
"I can't get done what I want to get done," she said. "This building here, we work and work and work and work. We work and work and work and then it doesn't look very good.
"There isn't anybody in the state system who works for hard." Anderson
said. "There are a lot of people who work hard, but the amount of work that's assigned to a person is not unreasonable."
Pet Gibson, a night custodian on the first floor of Strong, said custodians did high and low dusting and cleaned the rooms with dust-free blackboards and all windows and doors.
THEY ALSO EMPTY the trash, sweep and vacuum the floors, mop and clean the bathrooms, offices and classrooms.
"There's no way you can hurry through and do it all," said Fran Prough, a night custodian on the third floor of Strong.
"I have to slice something every night." Gibson said.
George Powell, a night custodian on the first floor of Malott Hall, said he didn't think engineering and efficiency are the same work involved in cleaning a building.
"Their standards are too high," Powell said. "They measure by volume of square feet rather than by what needs to be done."
There are about 145 custodians in the housekeeping department. The department also has three levels of work in the individual buildings, zone supervisors who are responsible for several buildings and two chief custodial supervisors who are responsible for the day and night shifts in buildings.
Craig Paul, a night custodian on the
second floor of Malot, said the staff would be adequate for cleaning the buildings if custodians would show up for work.
"A lot of these folks here they'll miss four or five or six days, and then they'll wonder why their supervisor gets down on them," he said. "If you just put a minimum amount of work in here and stay out of sight, you'll be OK."
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"When we leave here at two in the morning, it's sparkling clean as far as I'm concerned," Cosey said. "But my wife is not so sure." It's "clean, only if something's wrong."
SEVERAL OF THE custodians said that even if they managed to finish all their work, no one appreciated the job they did.
"IIf I'm done, I'd at least like to have someone say, 'Hey, this looks nice.' I got to go home and do more cleaning. That's why I want some complements."
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Bivens said he tried to find supervisors who could deal with people.
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"We need supervisors who know not only the nuts and bolts of the job but also how to deal with people on a one-to-one basis," he said.
George Aeschliman, the night building supervisor for Snow Hall, said he thought tensions between the custodians and management were caused by what he termed "the club mentality" of the management.
The management wields an invisible club and pressures the employees into working, Aeschiman said, instead of encouraging or complimenting them.
"To some people, pressure might
think that's what a lot of the problem is,
but not really.
"I would praise people for a good job. That gives them incentive to work. That's the way I see it. A lot of people don't see it that way."
BIVENS SAID THE department
gives people compliments.
gives people compliments.
"We are fair," he said. "We are compassionate when they have serious problems. We are genuinely interested in you." He did not succeed that this is a good place to work."
If a letter praising a custodian is sent to the department, Bivens said, copies are sent to the custodian, placed in his campus file and posted on the bulletin board.
Prough said that although the custodians were free to complain, she didn't think their opinions had any influence in the department.
"I don't know that we have any voice, really," she said.
"They'll list. But what gets done, who knows?" Cosey said.
Cosey said she once complained when she didn't get her paycheck for the month because of a mix-up in procedure.
The management was not sympathetic, she said.
"They flat-out just didn't care," she said. "That's the way I see it."
Coyle said she told them, "My hearing all you people say, 'I'm sorry' will not pay a bill I have. I want my work, just like you want your work done."
She got an interest-free loan of 60 percent of her check, Cosey said, which she paid back when she got the actual check on the 17th of the month. The regular payday in the first of the month.
"It still doesn't make any sense to me." she said.
Absenteeism and tardiness guidelines are another area in the department that doesn't make sense to some custodians.
The guidelines define chronic absenteeism as 12 unexcused absences in a year. The employee is warned after two absences, recommended for a five-day suspension after four absences, and recommended for dismissal six.
CHRONIC LATENESS is defined as being five or fewer minutes late more than 10 times a year, and extreme lateness more than 30 times a year or more eight times a year.
In both cases, the employee is warned and recommended for suspension before dismissal is considered.
"I think the guidelines are fair," Bivens said. "I think they have been accepted by our force of people."
"You either come in sicker than a dog or you go get a doctor's excuse," Charles Freeman, floor technician at Strong, said. "The only reason he's cut down absenteeism is because everyone comes in sicker than a dog."
"A lot of doctors won't give you an excuse unless you make an appointment and pay them," Gibson said.
Freeman said a doctor's note was required for an excused absence.
Anderson said some people complained about the guidelines, but they were necessary to maintain discipline.
Anderson said the housekeeping department would recover from the hostility between labor and management, then benefited from the AMS conflict with time.
"The department has growing pains," he said. "I think it's growing in the right direction."