As the debate rages on about the ethics of employing a cleaner during lockdown, we speak to five women who work as cleaners
And one specific element of this argument has taken over Twitter this week, a debate that incorporates not just class but gender too: the ethics of cleaners being asked to return to work. As with every Twitter argument, it began with a seemingly simple statement.
Amassing over 34,000 likes, the tweet received support but there was a furious response from some. ‘I don't have more time in lockdown, I have less because I'm sharing my workspace with two teens and another adult,’ replied fellow journalist Sarah Ditum. ‘There's more dirt, because of the more people. The cleaning is KILLING me and this is a bad take.’
It’s an especially important conversation to have now, when the safety of returning to work is so paramount and cleaners are considered among the group of elementary workers that have had the highest death rate because of Covid-19 .I’ll have to go back if I want to keep my job but I’m really anxious about it.
Similarly, Louise, who is a self-employed cleaner at Well Polished, was nervous returning to her work as a domestic cleaner but with only her husband’s income to rely on she has started to. ‘Within the first 24 hours of lockdown my job and my income vanished overnight,’ she says. ‘It has only just started to trickle back, thankfully. At first, I felt scared about the prospect of going into people’s safe havens.
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