This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

A janitor or custodian (called caretaker in English English, see American and British English differences) is a person who takes care of a building, such as a school, office building, or apartment block. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often (though not always) some maintenance and security. Similar but more managerial duties (and usually not including cleaning, for example) are performed by a superintendent, often called building superintendent.

[edit] Titles

Also referred to as a cleaning technician, they may also be required to receive training and licensing in various fields (e.g., Hazmat, CPR, Boiler Operations, etc.), depending on their employer and the specific nature of their job. In these respects a custodian may be considered to be different from a janitor.) In some settings janitors are called housekeepers or housekeeping staff and in others they are referred to as maintenance or maintenance staff. Institutions have also come up with a number of politically correct alternative job titles, including:

• Custodial Services Supervisor
• Custodial technician
• Sanitation supervisor
• Domestic engineer
• Guest Service Associate (G.S.A.)
• Environmental Services Associate

[edit] Occupational tasks

Typical custodian often consists of the following tasks:

• Cleaning bathrooms
  • Sinks
  • Toilets
  • Urinals
• Cleaning floors
• Cleaning carpeting
• Cleaning stainless steel and other special surfaces
• Clearing tables in lunch room
• Emptying trash and recycling bin
• Locking and unlocking buildings at the beginning and end of the day
• Stripping and waxing floors

[edit] Outsourcing

Cleaning is one of the most commonly outsourced services. Some of the reasons for this include:

• Basic cleaning tasks are standardised, with little variation among different enterprises.
• The nature of the job and required standard of performance can be clearly defined and specified in a contract, unlike more technical or professional jobs for which such specification is harder to develop.
• Many organizations which predominantly employ higher paid workers feel uncomfortable dealing with labour relations with low paid employees; by outsourcing, these labour relations issues are transferred to a contractor whose staff are comfortable and experienced in dealing with these issues, and their approach can benefit from economies of scale.
• If a cleaner is unavailable due to sickness or leave, a contractor which employs many cleaners can easily assign a substitute. A small organisation which employs one or a few cleaners directly will have much more trouble with this.

[edit] See also

• Property caretaker
• Building superintendent