Keeping it clean: Housekeeping at St John’s

Louise Offley has been a bedmaker at St John’s for 35 years, making her the longest serving member of the Housekeeping department

From vacuuming around students in bed to cleaning Fellows’ rooms – Louise Offley, the longest serving member of the Housekeeping department, has seen it all. She tells Louise Hanzlik about her three decades at St John’s, and how climbing the stairs doesn’t get any easier.

With the mirror polished, the bathroom gleaming, the washing up done, the surfaces dusted, and the carpet vacuumed, Louise steps back and looks around at her work – she has finished with this guest room. This is her patch, taking care of the Fellows’ rooms, offices guest rooms, and some student rooms, in I and H New Court. Now it’s time to move off site to clean the two hostels that she looks after in Richmond Terrace and Park Parade.

Louise Offley has been a bedmaker at St John’s for 35 years, making her the longest serving member of the Housekeeping department. There must be something about this department and how it holds onto its established staff – Belinda Peat, Senior Linen Room Supervisor, has been working here for 30 years, and Sandra Rogers, the Deputy Linen Room Supervisor, was here for 28 years before she retired in December.

Louise pauses from her cleaningLouise Offley hard at work in the Fellow's rooms

“The hardest part for me is climbing the stairs – they don’t get any easier!”

There are 55 members of staff in the Housekeeping department, and the team is predominantly made up of women; 40 are female. The department consists of bedmakers, or bedders – seven of which are male – supervisors, administrators, and gyps, or handymen.

Louise started working part time at St John’s in 1984 when she was in her 20s – she applied as her friend worked here – and she was tasked with cleaning student rooms daily and changing the bedding once a week. “Making the beds was much harder back then as they had sheets and blankets; everything was much heavier and there was a lot of static. It became easier when they changed the bedding to duvets, when the College started to regularly host conferences in the early-90s.”

“Hoovers were also so much harder to use then, they were upright and very heavy – they would suck up people’s socks! Now the hoovers we use are much better and a lot lighter – they changed them a few years after I started. The hardest part for me though is climbing the stairs – they don’t get any easier!”

The cleaning schedule has changed since Louise cleaned students’ rooms back in the 80s. Students no longer have their beds made for them – this changed in the mid-90s, and now only residential Fellows, conference guests, and single Visiting Scholars have their beds made. Student rooms are now cleaned once a week for 30 minutes rather than daily, due to the increase in the number of rooms. But some students don’t always want their room cleaned when the bedder arrives. 

“Sometimes students would ask me to come back another time. It was a bit more flexible back then to change our schedule as there were fewer people to look after. But now we don’t really have time to rearrange; we are much busier and have more rooms to clean and less time. So I either tell them I will miss that week – or I just hoover around them if they’re still in bed!”

The housekeeping team

The Housekeeping department

“We have a mixture of nationalities, representing 14 different countries – most of the team are British, but we have staff from as far afield as Fiji and Mexico”

Louise always enjoys interacting with the students when she cleans their rooms; she knows their names, learns where they are from, and they in turn see her as a familiar face that they can talk to if they want to.  

Since 2015, Louise has mainly been working in Fellows’ rooms in New Court. She works six hours a day, five days a week, and every day she cleans around 14 rooms – a mixture of residential Fellows’ rooms, offices, and a guest room. Her favourite is Dr Howard Hughes’s room in New Court, which has a great view over the Backs. “Sometimes the Fellows are in their rooms when I go to clean them, and if they are, they like to have a chat with me and are always friendly.”

Louise cleans each residential Fellow’s room for 20 minutes a day, and that includes dusting, vacuuming, washing up, and changing the bedding once a week. “Rooms with single beds are easy to do, but the double beds are harder work.”

Joanne Smith, Superintendent of Housekeeping, tells me: “Louise is a solid and reliable member of the team, and it’s wonderful that she has been at St John’s for 35 years. When I started in 2014, the department had 490 years of combined service! We have a mixture of nationalities here, representing 14 different countries – most of the team are British, but we have staff from as far afield as Fiji and Mexico.”

Joanne Smith, Superintendent of Housekeeping

Joanne Smith, Superintendent of Housekeeping

Joanne has a housekeeping and hospitality background – she previously worked at The George in Stamford, Fitzwilliam College and St Catharine’s College. Just before she came to St John’s the department had a name change – it was previously called Lady Superintendent’s. “It was changed as it was felt that the name was old fashioned and didn’t represent the department.” But what about the name ‘bedmaker’ – was this not considered antiquated and irrelevant for staff who don’t actually make beds as their main task? “Staff actually voted on this, and were asked if they wanted to be known as ‘housekeeping staff’ instead, but they opted to keep the name bedmaker; they wanted to keep the College tradition.”

The team structure has changed since Joanne started at St John’s. One team used to clean the external hostels and the other would clean inside the College, and both teams worked completely separately; this created a divide in the department. Now, both teams are amalgamated. “This has really helped with morale and created a great team spirit, and now everyone is working towards the same end goal,” Joanne says.

Every so often the department has a shake up and members of staff are moved around to work in different areas. “We do a complete shift around every couple of years,” explains Joanne. “It gives everyone variety, and they learn how to work in different areas. Not everyone is happy, but mostly people are pleased to take on different challenges and have a change of scenery!”

Louise’s schedule works out well for her, and she finds it easy to plan her day around the rooms she cleans in New Court. Even though the staff work alone in different locations – either in the main areas of Forecourt, New Court, Cripps, or at the external hostels – Louise explains that they all come together for regular meetings, and they always have a tea break every morning, so she doesn’t feel cut off from the other 54 staff members. “I think I have just about met everyone in the department now!” she laughs.

Louise waters a plant

Louise Offley tends to a plant in a Fellows room

“Johnians who used to live here come back for dinners and want to see their old rooms. I recognise many of them – they are really friendly and they like to catch up"

Conference time is a busy time of year for Housekeeping. Conferences run from June to September, and the College “is like a hotel then!” Joanne tells us. There are B&B guests, school visits, conferences, and Johnian dinners. “There’s a lot more work to do – it’s a massive operation in the summer, and we move up a gear. We also have to do a deep clean of the properties during this period. We work a lot of weekends – sometimes we work for four or five weeks without having the weekend off. We have great B&B feedback though, and the guests often comment on the cleanliness of the rooms.”

Louise enjoys working during conference time. Although it’s busy, she sees different faces every day – and sometimes old familiar faces too. “Johnians who used to live here come back for dinners and want to see their old rooms. I recognise many of them – they are really friendly and they like to catch up.”

So is Louise planning on staying at St John’s for a few more years to come, or does she fancy a change after working here for more than half of her life? “St John’s feels like home. I’ve never thought of leaving. It’s a lovely place to work – my 35 years have flown by. I reckon I’ll be here until I retire.”

Published: 07/03/19

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