Welcome to the first Cleanzine following our break, broadcast as it always has been over the past 22 years, around what is traditionally the time children return to schools, colleges, universities and the like – and, since the ‘school holidays’ are over, working parents arrive back in their workplaces en masse. I say ‘traditionally’ because that’s how it’s been for decades, but it’s not like that anymore, is it? 

  

John Austen and I started producing Cleanzine from our home offices, back in the days when Internet access was via ethernet cables plugged into our landline sockets – which disabled our office ‘phones. There were no doubt thousands like us throughout the world, but it was only when Covid-19 lockdowns forced everyone else who was able to work from home, to do so, that the practice became the norm for so many millions more. And now it appears that there’s no going back… There are simply too many advantages to be had by working from home. 

  

Despite growing numbers of calls over the past couple of years for us to return to the old ways, I really can’t see it happening. And it’s clear from the various surveys which regularly reach my desk, that I’m not the only one. Take the survey we’re featuring in today’s issue as an example of how people feel. It concludes that: “Flexible working arrangements are becoming a universal expectation in the modern workplace, transcending age barriers". 

  

The adverse impact mass working from home has had - and is having - on businesses that supported the old practice of us having workplaces to attend each day, has been well publicised. As usual though, I’m yet to read or hear about the impact it’s had on the cleaning industry, from anyone on the outside of it! Our industry had to adapt incredibly quickly and efficiently to the demands placed upon it as a result of the pandemic panic, whether for extra-thorough, round-the-clock cleaning practices using unusual methods and workwear, or in terms of attempting to find different work for employees whose normal tasks involved the upkeep of once-busy workplaces that were now empty. The fact that many of these buildings are still empty, with the supporting lunchtime habitats now also closed down, open fewer days or vastly under-utilised, must have created a huge headache for our industry in terms of employee utilisation and management along with, I should imagine, a surplus of particular types of machinery and equipment. I’d love to know how you’ve been affected and how you’ve coped with the challenges!