New Operating System 1 provokes concern among housekeepers

It’s not easy being clean.

Since August 2008, residence halls have undergone a shift to a new cleaning system known as Operating System 1 with the goal of improving efficiency while providing more ergonomic cleaning tools.

But as the system has spread from dormitory to dormitory, it has provoked concerns among its intended beneficiaries — the housekeepers themselves.

“I’m not in OS1 yet, but I know that a lot of people don’t like it,” said housekeeper and Employee Forum delegate Odessa Davis. “It’s not cleaning real good is what some people say.”

OS1 is based on standardized tools and procedures. It uses teams of workers trained in specialized tasks and equipped with specific tools and chemicals for each job function. It is meant to simplify the cleaning process, with teams assigned specific tasks to avoid redundancy.

“OS1 is all about healthiness — healthiness of workers, healthiness of buildings, healthiness of residents,” said Steve Lofgren, assistant director of facilities. “It’s really not about appearance. Appearance is secondary.”

Tonya Sell, assistant director of housekeeping, said the program was piloted in 2008 in the Carmichael community and has been met with resistance ever since. But she said employees will soon embrace the system, which is scheduled to be implemented across campus by the end of the academic year.

“So there is mild resistance, but the program, once you learn it and you trust it, you get to see all the neat things that it does do for you,” she said.

Davis, however, said housekeepers who have learned the program aren’t seeing those advantages.

“People that I’ve talked to in OS1, they don’t like it,” she said. “They say it’s not cleaning. They don’t have enough time to do a bathroom.”

Lofgren said the system has been used in most non-residential buildings since 2006 and was rolled out across residence halls to improve cleaning and the health of students and housekeepers alike.

Jackie Overton, chairwoman of the forum, said concerns have been expressed in meetings about the University not having the proper chemicals or products to use OS1.

Housekeeper Pamela Breeden, who is working under OS1, said the program has led to more walking, and that the backpacks make climbing stairs more strenuous. She added that she is concerned with the thoroughness of the cleaning techniques, especially in bathrooms where she said a “spray-and-wipe” method often makes it difficult to clean dried toothpaste and food waste.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.