some companies now prefer to involve cleaning employees during the day

Maintenance staff are often relegated to night shifts, invisible. However, some companies allow them to return to a more traditional rhythm.

“I want the State to set an example and, from now on, maintenance people to be able to work the same hours as everyone else, that is to say office hours.” This is one of Gabriel Attal’s announcements during his general policy declaration on Tuesday January 30. “It’s abnormal for people to take the metro very early in the morning just because they are asked not to meet office staff,” insisted the Prime Minister.

In the private sector, certain specialized companies have long favored better visibility for their cleaning employees.

Get up at 4 a.m., get ready in silence so as not to wake anyone, then take the RER at dawn to come to work in Paris: “The pace was really terrible for me”, says Yasmina. The transportation, the delays, the stress of not arriving on time at the offices she has to clean: “A misery, she regrets. I find myself tired all the time, even on the psychological side, I’m tired.”

“A worker who comes to do the cleaning is a partner”

She lasted three months at this rate, before Yasmina informed her employer, the Hoper company. Together, they find contracts a little later in the morning, which changes everything for this maintenance worker: “I arrive on time, I leave on time. I am less stressed. I can manage everything: work life and family life.”

Since the creation of his company specializing in cleaning, Alban Catimel, founder, has argued with his customers so that they opt for these slightly later hours. First argument: humanize the work of its 300 employees. “The big obstacle generally for customers is to say to themselves ‘ah I’m going to have someone in my paws while we work and have the noise of the vacuum cleaner…’ In fact, we manage to find compatible times, like lunchtime. There is always a time in the day that is more convenient. And having a worker who comes to clean your offices is a partner.”

It is also in the interest of his company: “We are in a job where there is really a huge turnover. Having normal days brings comfort, that’s undeniable…” Alban Catimel ensures that his customers do not go back.