Never, NEVER set the keys or cell phone down.

Caught an article via our friends at Cleaning & Maintenance Management regarding a janitor suing her employer because she trapped herself in a jail holding cell over the weekend; the holding cell door closed behind her, and both her keys and cell phone were outside on her cleaning cart.  There does seem to be a bit of mismanagement on the part of the employer; to quote the article:

"The complaint claims that Allied Universal should be held responsible for the incident due to improper training and a lack of supervision of their employees. “There had to have been at least seven shifts where new security folks came in,” her attorney, Bill McAfee, told WKMG. “[They] should have seen [her] driver’s license sitting there, should have seen that [her] keys had never been turned in, and that the log had never been signed out.” '

She also had health problems that made the incarceration serious.  Sounds like her employer missed some bets.

I believe in always having back-up; years back, an older client referred to it as a "belt and suspenders" approach to life.  We keep on hand a backup set of keys to all our clients, and always have a least one person easily available straight through the night (via phone, if you've not set yours down) and the weekend.

It would be interesting to see what sort of training her firm provided, regarding keeping keys and phone on one's person.  

I do our initial orientation myself.  I stress that one NEVER sets down keys or phone ANYWHERE.  We don't have many holding cells on our janitorial routs, and if one is locked in the office, there is generally a phone available But it's always possible, say, to be taking the trash to the dumpster, located in the fenced back lot, and have the self locking back door close behind you.  You'd be in the lot for the rest of the night, or weekend, if you'd left keys and phone on the front desk.

In our orientation, I illustrate using a personal example.  Just after going into business, 40-plus years ago, I was cleaning a small office building featuring several locked suites off a central hallway.  Entered the hallway, locked myself in (to avoid being surprised by the burglars), went into the first suite, set my keys on the reception desk, caught trash and dusting and then went back into the hall to get my vacuum (a Kirby in those days - remember them?)  The self locking door closed.  I was trapped in the locked hallway, without a phone booth (remember those?)  And these were the days long before any kind of mobile phone (remember those days?)

Managed to hop atop a soda machine and accessed the suite, and my keys, via the hung ceiling. Likely I was a bit more spry in those days (remember those days?)

I learned my lesson. Wonder if the gal's firm had a similar personal example, of what not to do.

 

Comments

[Robert]

I'm pretty shocked at the tone of your post, which puts the majority of the blame on the victim in this case.

This woman, a 72-year-old diabetic, is suing not her employer, but the security company responsible for monitoring the premises, and signing workers, including cleaning staff, in and out. Such responsibilities are clearly spelled out in such contracts.

The janitor had no contractual obligation to keep her phone or keys on her person, however monitoring of staff entering and exiting the building was an important responsibility for the security company, which was hired by the courthouse to do precisely this.

As a result of their negligence, this woman was trapped for three days without food, water or medicine and ultimately ended up in hospital.

[Bob Croft]

Hi,
Very much appreciate your response. I had not intended to assign a majority of blame to the janitor; I mostly commented on lack of proper procedures and foresight on the part of the security company, and an apparent lack of training from her employer. I failed to read the article closely enough and assumed, mistakenly, that the security was her employer. She might have a case against her employer as well, perhaps for lack of training ("don't set the phone down") and for (likely) lack of a clocking out procedure at end of shift. There are systems available to do that via phone, and a lack of clocking out should have alerted someone about a potential problem.
My point in the post is in planning for problems. Organize to minimize likelihood of problems, and have solutions in place for when problems inevitably occur. And solutions to backstop the solutions. And train. Finally, when training, use examples (stories) to help the lessons sink in. And try "show and tell". Hadn't thought of it before seeing this story, but in my next orientation class, I'll set my phone down in the caddy atop the rolling trash bin, walk out the door....