Speaker 1: That's my colleagues. We'll stop commenting on everything I get
Speaker 1: my assistants at people and meeting? Why does my coworker
Speaker 1: keep taking credit for all my ideas? Have any wisdom
Speaker 1: for me? Hi? I'm Alison Green. Welcome to the Aska
Speaker 1: Manager podcast, where I answer questions from listeners about life
Speaker 1: at work. Everything from what to say if you're allergic
Speaker 1: to your coworkers perfume to what to do if you
Speaker 1: drink too much at the company party. Let's get started.
Speaker 1: You might think that work advice doesn't have much crossover
Speaker 1: with cleaning advice, but actually I get a fair number
Speaker 1: of questions that relate to cleaning at work. Why is
Speaker 1: the microwave in the office kitchen so disgusting? And how
Speaker 1: can we keep it clean? The person who shares my
Speaker 1: workspace leaves it in a terrible mess? How do I
Speaker 1: lead a meeting when I just spilled soup all over
Speaker 1: my shirt? Today we're going to talk about the intersection
Speaker 1: of work and cleaning, And I'm so excited about the guests.
Speaker 1: Who's here to do it? Jolly Care runs the cleaning
Speaker 1: advice column Ask a Clean Person, and she's the host
Speaker 1: of the Ask a Clean Person and podcast, as well
Speaker 1: as the author of the best selling book My Boyfriend
Speaker 1: Barfed in My Handbag and Other Things you Can't ask Martha,
Speaker 1: and she has made cleaning advice fun and fascinating. She
Speaker 1: answers questions from Airbnb hosts about how to clean up
Speaker 1: the blood their guests left all around their home, what
Speaker 1: to do if your Halloween wig leaves hair everywhere, how
Speaker 1: to clean up the beer you spilled all over your bed,
Speaker 1: and much more. She knows everything there is to know
Speaker 1: about cleaning, and on a personal note, her advice once
Speaker 1: helped me save my favorite pair of sweatpants from a
Speaker 1: terrible olive oil stain, so I will always be forever
Speaker 1: in her debt, she's here today to answer a whole
Speaker 1: slew of questions that listeners sent in that involve both
Speaker 1: work and cleanliness. Julie, Welcome to the show. Hi Allison,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you here. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: do this. This is a fun red rover for us
Speaker 1: since you did my show. That's right. I think people
Speaker 1: might think, like cleaning and work, where's the intersection there?
Speaker 1: But actually I put out a call on Twitter and
Speaker 1: on the Aska Manager web site for people to send in.
Speaker 1: There are questions about cleanliness at work, and people have
Speaker 1: a ton of them, so we have some really great
Speaker 1: ones to answer. Yeah, we do. I'm excited. Before we
Speaker 1: do that, though, I want to ask you about your work,
Speaker 1: because I am obsessed with what you do. How did
Speaker 1: Ask a Clean Person get started? Ask a Clean Person
Speaker 1: got started? Really on a total lark. I was working
Speaker 1: as a marketing and business develop manager at a big
Speaker 1: law firm here in New York. That was my career.
Speaker 1: I had a very good career. As I like to
Speaker 1: tell people, I wore suits and pantyhose um. And but
Speaker 1: I had come out of a journalistic background and I
Speaker 1: missed the creative pursuits, and so I had been doing
Speaker 1: a little bit of writing on the side under a
Speaker 1: pen name care is actually a pen name. Um Jolie
Speaker 1: is my real nickname for my full name, but um
Speaker 1: but Karra's end name. And at the time I was
Speaker 1: writing for a site called The All R I p
Speaker 1: The All and they were launching a sister's site that
Speaker 1: was a women's vertical called The Hairpin. And the editor
Speaker 1: of that site said, you know, I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to write for us, and yeah, I'd love to, and
Speaker 1: a friend of mine came up with the idea that
Speaker 1: I should write about cleaning, which I thought was a
Speaker 1: terrible idea. Terrible idea. I didn't think anyone would read it.
Speaker 1: And the only way that I could, kind of in
Speaker 1: my mind make sense of what a readable cleaning column
Speaker 1: might look like was to do it as a Q
Speaker 1: and a as an advice column. Just let people tell
Speaker 1: me what they wanted to know, what what problems they had,
Speaker 1: what questions I had, And so we came up with
Speaker 1: the idea of Asked a Clean Person. I truly thought
Speaker 1: it was gonna die on the vine. I solicited questions
Speaker 1: from about twenty friends, expecting that I would get, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe three pity replies, but no, actually I got a
Speaker 1: lot of replies just from my friends. And then once
Speaker 1: the column started, I would say, within the first three
Speaker 1: weeks of the column, I didn't need to rely on
Speaker 1: those replies from my friends at all. I had enough
Speaker 1: from our actual readers, and from there it was really
Speaker 1: off to the races. I was also, at the time
Speaker 1: just um a person who knew a lot about cleaning,
Speaker 1: but by no means was I a cleaning expert. I
Speaker 1: learned on the job, and ultimately I ended up getting
Speaker 1: a book deal and writing my book. My boyfriend barbed
Speaker 1: in my handbag and other things you can't ask Martha. UM.
Speaker 1: And when I finished writing the book in hand and
Speaker 1: then the manuscript, I sort of had this like light
Speaker 1: bulb moment where I thought, well, girl, now you're an expert,
Speaker 1: because you really know the answers to this stuff. Like
Speaker 1: I said, so much resource and I talked to so
Speaker 1: many people, and I learned so much from my readers.
Speaker 1: And it's a weird thing about cleaning when you meant
Speaker 1: when you talk, when you mentioned it to people, they
Speaker 1: actually want to talk about it, and they want to
Speaker 1: tell you not only the horrible messages they've made in
Speaker 1: the disaster they've they've had, like you know, getting cooking
Speaker 1: oil on their favorite sweatpaine u um, but they also
Speaker 1: want to tell you the stuff they know. And a
Speaker 1: lot of times it's stuff that that is common knowledge,
Speaker 1: but a lot of times it's also very esoteric. Um.
Speaker 1: And what I found was that the more that I
Speaker 1: talked to people and told them what I did, the
Speaker 1: more that hobbyists kind of came out of the woodwork
Speaker 1: with tips for me, Like um, this. This didn't actually happened,
Speaker 1: but like an example of a kind of thing that
Speaker 1: would happen is like I'd meet like a cellist who
Speaker 1: would be like, oh, yes, well this is how you
Speaker 1: clean a cello, and then I know how to clean
Speaker 1: a cello because it's an expert on that has just
Speaker 1: told me that. Um. So that's really how the how
Speaker 1: the job came about. And it's been wonderful. It's been
Speaker 1: a total trip in a wild ride. I think one
Speaker 1: reason people I love it is because it's like this
Speaker 1: very modern twist. It's not what people think about I
Speaker 1: think when they think about a cleaning advice column sounds
Speaker 1: like something your grandmother might read that you deal with
Speaker 1: like a lot of body fluid related questions, and you're
Speaker 1: so not non judgmental about it. I think people love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's um that's one of the benefits of
Speaker 1: doing it in the Q and A format is that
Speaker 1: people are coming to you with their real messes, and
Speaker 1: so that becomes very relatable for a reader. I often
Speaker 1: tell people that people aren't really reading it from my advice.
Speaker 1: They're reading it for the questions and the messes and
Speaker 1: the stories. There's so much voyeurism that goes along with
Speaker 1: any kind of advice column really, um, and you know
Speaker 1: you certainly you know that from your work, and so
Speaker 1: really that's the human interest side to it, Like how
Speaker 1: did that tin of of mackerel packed in oil come
Speaker 1: to be spilled on your favorite house pants? Uh? Which
Speaker 1: you know was a real question that I thought that
Speaker 1: as I know how you ended up getting the advice
Speaker 1: you needed for your own oil on your favorite house
Speaker 1: pants uh situation that you add, um, And so that
Speaker 1: really was I think, Um, I think there's a there's
Speaker 1: a human interest to it that sort of the older
Speaker 1: style cleaning advice columns that you find don't offer that.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, there's there's my voice in it too, um,
Speaker 1: which is you know, as you said, you know, non judgmental.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason I'm not judgmental, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: is because like I've been a disaster in my life,
Speaker 1: Like I've made all kinds of embarrassing messes over the years,
Speaker 1: and so it would be, first of all, I would
Speaker 1: be totally out of character for me as as me
Speaker 1: just as a human to judge someone who you know
Speaker 1: has thrown up in like inside their pillowcase which is
Speaker 1: the thing that happened one of my friends, because like,
Speaker 1: but for the grace of God, go I want, I
Speaker 1: want to start up on my own feet. You know,
Speaker 1: do you think that there is something generational to the
Speaker 1: response that you've gotten that we haven't been taught how
Speaker 1: to clean things in the same way that our parents
Speaker 1: are grandparents might have been, and we're sort of stuck
Speaker 1: figuring it out for ourselves. And so there's this real
Speaker 1: hunger when there's this expert source to go to. Or
Speaker 1: is that just me who doesn't really know how to clean? No,
Speaker 1: it's not just you don't worry. Actually, the great thing
Speaker 1: about asking same person also is that it's just a
Speaker 1: great equalizer that like, no one is in any kind
Speaker 1: of mess alone. Ever. Um, I love telling people I've
Speaker 1: got in three separate questions from three separate people who
Speaker 1: melted a pound of butter into their car seats, no
Speaker 1: messages unique. So but yeah, I do. I do absolutely
Speaker 1: think that there is a generational component. And I think, frankly,
Speaker 1: you know from the perspective of me, who you know,
Speaker 1: I I am a feminist for sure. I went to
Speaker 1: a women's college. I've got that whole like thing about me.
Speaker 1: You know, UM, I actually think it's kind of a
Speaker 1: good thing in a lot of ways that women in
Speaker 1: particular haven't been like as as like trained in the
Speaker 1: domestic arts as maybe they were to one or two
Speaker 1: generations back. Um. But that also means that there is
Speaker 1: of groth of knowledge and that we all as people
Speaker 1: need to know how to clean, whether we do it
Speaker 1: or not, it's a skill or knowledge base that we
Speaker 1: should have. Um. And one of the opportunities that I
Speaker 1: really had with doing this column once I sort of
Speaker 1: identified that this was this generational learning gap really was
Speaker 1: going on, was that it let me level the playing
Speaker 1: field for both men and women and say, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to teach you how to clean, but I'm
Speaker 1: not just teaching and women how to clean. I'm teaching
Speaker 1: the men too, Like I'm here for everyone. This is
Speaker 1: not gender And that that was my I know that
Speaker 1: sounds like crazy, and I hope I don't get dragged
Speaker 1: for saying it, but that was like maybe one of
Speaker 1: my biggest like feminist moments and achievements when I had
Speaker 1: that that light bulb go on and realize that like
Speaker 1: I could do this thing, I could actually affect real
Speaker 1: change in terms of addressing the gender gap that still
Speaker 1: does exist with cleaning, because I could exploit this not
Speaker 1: whole in knowledge that an entire generation, not just of women,
Speaker 1: but of men to have I love that. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask about that. Actually, because he started your column
Speaker 1: at the Hairpin, which was aimed at women, but then
Speaker 1: you started writing for more male audience. Have you noticed
Speaker 1: differences in the type of questions that you get from
Speaker 1: men versus from women. No, great news, everyone is filthy.
Speaker 1: Equality rains when it comes to how messy we are
Speaker 1: and the messes we make. I did notice an uptick
Speaker 1: in questions about cleaning couches when I started writing for men.
Speaker 1: That was curious for me. My takeaway from that is
Speaker 1: that men really love their couches, and and that's great,
Speaker 1: and I like that they love them so much they
Speaker 1: were righting to a cleaning expert to know how to
Speaker 1: clean them up. Um. But there was one big difference
Speaker 1: that I noticed, and this this is a little dispiriting,
Speaker 1: and and it is this, men and women ask questions
Speaker 1: in very different ways. Women tend to open their questions
Speaker 1: by apologizing for not knowing something, apologizing for being gross. Um.
Speaker 1: Just generally there's a lot of self law reglation that
Speaker 1: happens when women begin to address me before they even
Speaker 1: get into asking their questions, whereas men tend to open
Speaker 1: their questions to me by stating their credentials, they're smarts,
Speaker 1: their base of knowledge, and then they get to the
Speaker 1: question they have to ask. That is dispiriting. I noticed. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have a bunch of questions that people set in
Speaker 1: for you that I want us to tackle. Will take
Speaker 1: a very quick break and we'll come back with the questions. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get into questions that people sent in for you
Speaker 1: about the intersection of work and cleaning. So this first
Speaker 1: one was sent in from someone on Twitter who asked,
Speaker 1: if I spill hypothetically and hypothetically, isn't all caps here
Speaker 1: mustard or tomato soup on myself at lunch? What will
Speaker 1: take it out? Aside from those portable tiede pens or
Speaker 1: shout wipes which stink? What do I need to keep
Speaker 1: in my desk? I love this question, and I have
Speaker 1: to say I will out who it is, but it
Speaker 1: is actually someone I worked with at the hairpin Um,
Speaker 1: and I love it was. It's such a good question.
Speaker 1: I like also that she managed to pick like two
Speaker 1: of the stainiest foods that you could pick. Tomato soup
Speaker 1: and mustard are very very very stainy. But but that's
Speaker 1: that's great that she picked them. So first of all,
Speaker 1: I actually say I really do like shout whites. I
Speaker 1: do not love tied pens um. If it's all you've
Speaker 1: got and then pinch, they work great. Um. I find
Speaker 1: that the delivery of application of scene removing solution is
Speaker 1: just much better in a wipe form that it is
Speaker 1: in the pen form. And one copyat I want to
Speaker 1: give about both of those products is that if you
Speaker 1: do you, I mean you know they're meant to be
Speaker 1: used on the go, which you should use them on
Speaker 1: the go, and they're great to use. But when you
Speaker 1: get home, it is not a bad idea to flush
Speaker 1: the area that you stain tree did with cool running
Speaker 1: water just to push out the detergent, because what can
Speaker 1: happen is the detergent itself can leave a little ring
Speaker 1: that will create a state of its own. Um. So,
Speaker 1: but with that set, I think that chot webs are
Speaker 1: great and I really do recommend that people stash a
Speaker 1: little box of them in a desk store or you know,
Speaker 1: stick a few in a handbag, or if you're a man,
Speaker 1: stick one in your wallet, like right next to your
Speaker 1: just in case condom. Um. I really think they're great.
Speaker 1: In fact, I used one just this past weekend. Friend
Speaker 1: had an old coffee stain on her favorite shirt and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh girl, get over here, and like
Speaker 1: scrubbed her buzzom off and took the stain right out
Speaker 1: and she was happy and so was I. But I
Speaker 1: also want to help out this person who does not
Speaker 1: like chat wipes, because that's also a fair stance. You
Speaker 1: don't have to love the products that I love for sure.
Speaker 1: Um here is a weird one that is great, especially
Speaker 1: in the workplace or just generally on the fly. Hand
Speaker 1: sanitizer is an incredible stain remover. The reason for that
Speaker 1: is is that it has a very high concentration of
Speaker 1: alcohol in it. Alcohol is a wonderful stain remover, which
Speaker 1: leads me to this next thing. I do not think
Speaker 1: it is a bad idea at all to keep either
Speaker 1: a bottle of rubbing alcohol or a packet of those
Speaker 1: um alcohol impregnated whites. They're they're usually called prep pads.
Speaker 1: You find them met the at the drug store. Those
Speaker 1: are excellent not only for staining ruver but also for
Speaker 1: cleaning telephone headsets and keyboards. And I know we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that stuff because we've got some more
Speaker 1: questions specifically about those. But rubbing alcohol is wonderful for
Speaker 1: all kinds of cleaning um, and so if you do
Speaker 1: have space for it, just a little bottle of rubbing
Speaker 1: alcohol or those prep paths would be great. I have
Speaker 1: rubbing alcohol that comes in a spray bottle, which has
Speaker 1: been a total game changer for stain ruble, and I
Speaker 1: would say the spray bottle is particularly excellent. The last
Speaker 1: thing to mention in most workplaces you will have it
Speaker 1: is dish soap. Good old dish soap is great. Now
Speaker 1: it's not always the most practical thing. If you dribble
Speaker 1: on your shirt, you have to keep wearing it for
Speaker 1: the rest of the day. But if it's on something
Speaker 1: like a cardigan that you can take off and flush
Speaker 1: with a little water, massage a small amount of dish
Speaker 1: soap into the stain using your fingers, and then flush
Speaker 1: again with cool water. Repeating is necessary if it's a
Speaker 1: particularly bad scene or big scene, but dish so it
Speaker 1: takes a lot out. Okay, well, you mentioned keyboards, and
Speaker 1: we had a few people ask about keyboards. One person asked,
Speaker 1: how gross are keyboards? And another person asked, please ask
Speaker 1: about the best way to keep your keyboard clean, especially
Speaker 1: if you eat at your desk and you're not willing
Speaker 1: to change that habit. And I'm going to sign on
Speaker 1: to this question too, because my keyboard is disgusting. Okay,
Speaker 1: fair enough. Yeah, first of all, Yeah, the keyboards are
Speaker 1: super gross, completely disgusting. Like, here's a thing I think
Speaker 1: people generally know this, Like, your hands are the dirtiest
Speaker 1: part of your body, right, So anything that your hands
Speaker 1: are touching all the time, all the time, whether it's
Speaker 1: a light switch, a door knob, a faucet on a sink,
Speaker 1: or your keyboard. Oh also your cell phones, guys, your
Speaker 1: cell phones are disgusting. I am weirdly not a German Phope,
Speaker 1: it's really surprised as people to learn. But like, one
Speaker 1: thing I absolutely will not do is I will not
Speaker 1: touch other people's faults because I know how gross they
Speaker 1: are and I can't do it. I can't bring myself
Speaker 1: to do it. Um. So, yeah, your keyboard is super gross,
Speaker 1: but you do not at all have to stop eating
Speaker 1: at your desk or any of that kind of stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: they're basically two different things. You want to bear in
Speaker 1: mind when you're cleaning a keyboard. For deep cleaning a keyboard,
Speaker 1: you want to start with canned air compressed air candar
Speaker 1: is the same same term for the same thing, or sorry,
Speaker 1: different terms for the same thing. Um, that will help
Speaker 1: you remove any debris, whether it's crumbs or dust or
Speaker 1: hair or whatever. I don't even want to think what
Speaker 1: else could be going on in a keyboard. Um, it
Speaker 1: will help us logic from within, uh, the in between
Speaker 1: the keys, if you want to start with that, though,
Speaker 1: because it is going to blow up all of that
Speaker 1: stuff all over onto the top of the keyboard, the
Speaker 1: bezel of the screen, all of that. So that's really
Speaker 1: what you want to start with if you're going to
Speaker 1: do a deep cleaning. And then really all you need
Speaker 1: to clean a keyboard is rubbing alcohol. You do not
Speaker 1: need anything fancy at all. I use rubbing alcoholic, I said.
Speaker 1: I have this the little spray bottle, it actually sits
Speaker 1: at my desk and a microfiber cloth, and I just
Speaker 1: spray some of the rubbing alcohol on the microfiber cloth
Speaker 1: and just wipe the keyboard down and that's all. Um,
Speaker 1: if they're really really bad, like kind of stubborn stains
Speaker 1: or scuffs, um um. Magic a research is wonderful. Q
Speaker 1: tips are also great tools for detailing keyboards. But you're
Speaker 1: gonna totally hate me for this, and no one has
Speaker 1: to do this. I'm just telling you what I did
Speaker 1: because I'm me. Every Monday morning, I qute hit my keyboard.
Speaker 1: I like go over it with the rubbing alcohol in
Speaker 1: the and the cute tip. It's just it's like my
Speaker 1: little Monday morning ritual, like as I'm kind of getting
Speaker 1: going for the week. Um, and it works great and
Speaker 1: it's like really also satisfying because then you can look
Speaker 1: at it and like see the dart that came out,
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh yeah, like clean, that's great. So
Speaker 1: that's really all nothing fancy. I think I've cleaned my
Speaker 1: keyboard once a quarter. That's better than most outs. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's honestly, that's fine. Like I'm just me, I'm me,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm looking at it right now. It's so good. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I am a clean for like I live this way.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's something no one else needs to right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to clean my keyboard mark like, I'm
Speaker 1: actually embarrassed when people see my laptop because it's so gross. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think most people probably feel it. Like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: next question I think is really interesting. It's how much
Speaker 1: personal stuff should live in your workspace. The person who
Speaker 1: sent this in says, I have the standard bits of paraphernalia, photos, calendars, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But I also have a coworker who has so much
Speaker 1: stuff in her cube that it's expanding into the empty
Speaker 1: cube behind her. Her cube is crammed. If her apartment
Speaker 1: looked like her cube, I would call her a hoarder.
Speaker 1: But I've never been to her apartment. None of it
Speaker 1: is worth related. But even if it were in the
Speaker 1: digital age, is there really any acceptable reason behind someone's
Speaker 1: space being crammed full of stuff? Jelly? What do you
Speaker 1: think about that? Well, surprise, Alison, I've I flagged this
Speaker 1: one because I actually wanted to hear your answer. I
Speaker 1: think it's interesting. I think if you go to either
Speaker 1: extreme on this, it'll look a little bit off. If
Speaker 1: you have absolutely nothing personal in your office, you kind
Speaker 1: of look like you haven't put down any roots, And
Speaker 1: like maybe one day you're just not going to come
Speaker 1: back from lunch. But then there are also people who
Speaker 1: go to the other extreme where they fillip their this
Speaker 1: or their cube like it's their house, Like they're bringing
Speaker 1: in couches and rugs and lamps and many fridges. And
Speaker 1: when you do that, I think there is a point
Speaker 1: where it looks like your focus is on the wrong things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I am all for making your work space
Speaker 1: more comfortable and cozy. I'm a big fan of that,
Speaker 1: but I do think you can take it too far
Speaker 1: where your priorities look off. Yeah, and that was pretty
Speaker 1: much what my initial response was, is that you do
Speaker 1: you do want to take into account the impression you're
Speaker 1: creating at work, and the the impression should be that
Speaker 1: you are there to do a job and that you
Speaker 1: are professional, regardless of what that job is. I think
Speaker 1: it's also tricky because so many jobs are so different,
Speaker 1: and you know, if you work in a creative field,
Speaker 1: having a very riotous looking cubicle might be a totally
Speaker 1: different thing from if you work, say in banking. Um So,
Speaker 1: the thing I would say is, first of all, some
Speaker 1: people work better with stuff around them, and some people
Speaker 1: work better with nothing around them, and some people work,
Speaker 1: you know, in in all places in between in that spectrum. Um.
Speaker 1: But one thing I'll say about the abundance of stuff
Speaker 1: is that it does make it very difficult to keep
Speaker 1: your desk clean. If every surface is covered, then you
Speaker 1: can't really easily wipe off a desktop, you can't dust easily.
Speaker 1: If you spill something like if you knock over a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee, then cleaning that up is going to
Speaker 1: become a much longer and more involved ordeal and take
Speaker 1: much more time out of your work day when you
Speaker 1: should be actually working and not cleaning up the coffee
Speaker 1: that you spilled on the plush garfield that you got
Speaker 1: at the state fair. And so you do want to
Speaker 1: take into account that it will be very difficult to
Speaker 1: keep your space clean. I would say, if it's your coworker,
Speaker 1: it's really on your your boss or their manager or
Speaker 1: whoever that is to address that. If it's making you
Speaker 1: uncomfortable in some way, then perhaps you could speak to
Speaker 1: your manager about it. But if it just irritates you,
Speaker 1: then I think that's something you just got to get over,
Speaker 1: because if it's not affecting their performance or really affecting you,
Speaker 1: other than you're annoyed by it, then you gotta get
Speaker 1: over it. Ye agree with it does. The one thing
Speaker 1: I would add is if it's an issue where like
Speaker 1: you have to go into that person's office to get
Speaker 1: something when they're out and there's no way that you're
Speaker 1: going to find it without digging through pounds and pounds
Speaker 1: of stuff, that's a reasonable work issue to bring up.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take it straight to the manager. I mean
Speaker 1: I talked to the person and say, hey, when you're
Speaker 1: out last week and I had to find the X form,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of trouble finding it. And even
Speaker 1: then I wouldn't say, like, can you clean your entire
Speaker 1: office for me? I would say, can you maybe like
Speaker 1: better mark the things that people might need access to? That?
Speaker 1: All right, let's take our last break here. When we
Speaker 1: come back, we have lots more really interesting questions, and
Speaker 1: we also have a very interesting all staff email that
Speaker 1: was sent around in someone's office that we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about. I get a lot of questions that ask
Speaker 1: a manager from people who are having physical reactions to
Speaker 1: the air freshener that their coworkers are spraying around there
Speaker 1: getting migraines or respiratory issues, and sometimes people even have
Speaker 1: little mini wars in their office about scented products that
Speaker 1: some people want to use and some people don't. And indeed,
Speaker 1: we got a question about this on Twitter. Someone wrote,
Speaker 1: is there such a thing as an inoffensively scented air freshener?
Speaker 1: I have less track of how many employee arguments start
Speaker 1: over the odor of one of these things. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I can. I can totally feel that wine. So
Speaker 1: here's the thing. There. There are inoffensively scented or basically
Speaker 1: unscented um odor removals, but air fresheners are a different category.
Speaker 1: Those are those sent of things. And the problem that
Speaker 1: happens with scented things is, first of all, you know,
Speaker 1: you do have people who are highly sensitive to them,
Speaker 1: um you know, whether they cause respiratory issues or allergies
Speaker 1: or migraines. But also then even if they're they're not
Speaker 1: causing you know, physical problems, they can be irritating to
Speaker 1: people to have to smell something that they don't like smelling.
Speaker 1: The issue is is that smells and what we do
Speaker 1: and do not like are so personal. Like I love
Speaker 1: the smell of ammonia, but I recognize that most people
Speaker 1: do not like the smell of a bone. That's not
Speaker 1: thinking one. No, No, I know other people do too,
Speaker 1: I promise, just Alice, and just like the pound of
Speaker 1: butter in the car. I am not the only person
Speaker 1: who loves to sell amonia. You know the thing. It's
Speaker 1: people who love the smell of ammonia or also, we're
Speaker 1: all the same cohort of people who love the smell
Speaker 1: of gasoline and like all yeah, so it was like
Speaker 1: all that same like older family that we love, Uh,
Speaker 1: don't come from my people. Um. So the problem is
Speaker 1: is that like if if you a pine scented you know,
Speaker 1: plug in air freshener smells wonderful to the person next
Speaker 1: to you, it might smell horrible. And that person next
Speaker 1: to you might love the smell of a lavender scented
Speaker 1: plug in air freshener or spray air freshener or whatever
Speaker 1: it is, and you might hate that because laven or
Speaker 1: do you might smell like, you know, your your great
Speaker 1: aunt's house and you hate it going over there and
Speaker 1: she pinch your cheeks and make you eat foodie too
Speaker 1: and like and all that stuff. So the sense and
Speaker 1: how we react to the are really so personal. So
Speaker 1: what I would advise for people, UM in office settings
Speaker 1: is first of all, just to stay away from anything
Speaker 1: sentence just you know, and if there's someone you know
Speaker 1: in HR or an office manager, someone who can just
Speaker 1: make a policy of that so that it's not you know,
Speaker 1: Bob hates lavender, Bob's weren in the fund for all
Speaker 1: of us, and you know, just making a policy that
Speaker 1: nothing sented um And that makes sense. I think this
Speaker 1: isn't directly cleaning related, but it may also extend to
Speaker 1: things like wearing perfumes. There really foot flip sides of
Speaker 1: the same coin. But there are some uh odor neutralizers.
Speaker 1: So should you you know, sort of need a product
Speaker 1: in the office, maybe because it's a small office and
Speaker 1: and there's a you know, office kitchen where people cook
Speaker 1: and you want something. Here are a few um things
Speaker 1: that I can suggest. First of all, gel odor absorbers
Speaker 1: are great. You can find those at any hardware home
Speaker 1: improvement store. So sometimes they're scented, but I find that
Speaker 1: it's such a light scent that you won't you don't
Speaker 1: really notice them unless you're really like right above them.
Speaker 1: There's also totally unscented odor absorber is active charcoal and
Speaker 1: you can buy active charcoal either in bricks that you
Speaker 1: can just set out in a you know, discrete spot
Speaker 1: and will absorb odors that are in the air, or
Speaker 1: that sold loose. Um. The easiest place to find. You
Speaker 1: can find all these things on Amazon, but if you
Speaker 1: want to go to a brick and mortar, if you
Speaker 1: go to a pet supply store, active charcoal is sold
Speaker 1: loose in the in the aquarium section because they're often
Speaker 1: using fish tanks. And then the last product to mention
Speaker 1: is there is a spray odor eliminator called osi um.
Speaker 1: Osum does have a scent to it, but it dissipates
Speaker 1: very very quickly. It is excellent um. If you have
Speaker 1: like the dreaded someone microwaved fish situation, oseum will kill
Speaker 1: that in like a minute. And the scent of the
Speaker 1: oseum itself when you spray it, you'll smell it, but
Speaker 1: that scent also dissipates very very quickly. Interesting. Okay. Our
Speaker 1: next question, also from someone on Twitter, I believe is
Speaker 1: the work microwave is a crime scene. Do we have
Speaker 1: to take it outside and burn it to ash or?
Speaker 1: I love that question, you know, I love that so
Speaker 1: much because um, I think it speaks to that the
Speaker 1: relatability and the humor that I talked about when we
Speaker 1: were talking about the genesis of asking theme person and
Speaker 1: kind of why it works. Like we all have been there,
Speaker 1: we all have had that worked microwave where we're like,
Speaker 1: should we just you know, sacrifice it to the gods,
Speaker 1: like it's such a disaster. The goodness is, no, you
Speaker 1: do not need to sacrifice it to the gods. Uh.
Speaker 1: Only once have I encounter to microwave that I truly
Speaker 1: said had to be sacrificed to the gods. And that
Speaker 1: was in mycrowave that was invested by roaches that somehow
Speaker 1: and for some reason, its owner like felt she needed
Speaker 1: to resolve and keep using the microwave. And I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we just get a new microwave. Like I was like,
Speaker 1: I could tell you what to do, but no, get
Speaker 1: a new microwin. Um So, anyway, here's the good thing
Speaker 1: about microwaves. Uh, they actually are really really easy to clean.
Speaker 1: Here is there there are tons of ways to clean
Speaker 1: a microwave. So if you if you don't hear your
Speaker 1: favorite microwave cleaning trick in this police know that it's
Speaker 1: not because I don't know it it's just because I'm
Speaker 1: picking the easiest one. To take into account that this
Speaker 1: is an office microwave. So here's really what you want
Speaker 1: to do. You want to microwave a small bowl or
Speaker 1: mug or whatever of just plain water. Be do be
Speaker 1: careful when you open the microwave and take it out,
Speaker 1: because obviously it will be very hot. You want to
Speaker 1: you want to be careful not to hurt yourself with that.
Speaker 1: But what that will do is it will create a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of steam inside the microwave, which will loosen
Speaker 1: up all of that stuff that is sort of splattered
Speaker 1: all over the walls and so on and so forth,
Speaker 1: and it'll just make it a lot easier to clean out.
Speaker 1: You do always want to take the turn turn tray out.
Speaker 1: You can wash that just like you would a dish
Speaker 1: in the sink with a sponge and soapy hot water,
Speaker 1: or even in the dishwasher if you have one of those.
Speaker 1: UM for the interior of the microwave. Once you've created
Speaker 1: that steam in there, you want to just go in
Speaker 1: basically UM with a sponge or even better UM. There's
Speaker 1: a type of sponge called the dobe pad d O
Speaker 1: b I E it's a non scratch scouring sponge. It's
Speaker 1: particularly great for small princess because it will help you
Speaker 1: really scrub things away without scratching the interior exterior, and um,
Speaker 1: it'll just add a lot of extra scouring power to
Speaker 1: the job of getting kind of the splatters of tomato
Speaker 1: soup and so on and so forth out of there.
Speaker 1: I may take a little time in a little elbow grease,
Speaker 1: but really it's a pretty easy and straightforward job, and
Speaker 1: you don't need anything particularly fancy for it. One of
Speaker 1: the things to mention is that there are really egregious
Speaker 1: stands of magic eraser is wonderful. I love magic erasers.
Speaker 1: I I do know what they're made of, but I
Speaker 1: don't even like telling people because I like to live
Speaker 1: in a world where they're just made of magic, and
Speaker 1: so that's what I choose to live in, and I
Speaker 1: want all of you to live in that world with me,
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to tell you what they're made out.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do another one. Okay. This person says,
Speaker 1: we do not have a real sink or dish area
Speaker 1: in our office, so a lot of us rinse our
Speaker 1: coffee cups in the bathroom sink and sometimes even ease
Speaker 1: hand soap. Is that an adequate substitute for a dish soap? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I'm so happy that you're even just rinsing them,
Speaker 1: because you know, so many people just leave their dirty
Speaker 1: coffee mugs out and never rinse them and then reuse
Speaker 1: them and I gross like, so yes, that is totally acceptable. Um.
Speaker 1: Really the biggest difference, um between hand and just stuff,
Speaker 1: it's just that dish shop was probably a bit more
Speaker 1: effective when you're talking about grease cutting. But if you're
Speaker 1: just if you need to wash them mug, I mean,
Speaker 1: unless you're unless you're drinking chicken soup out of mug,
Speaker 1: which is you know, greasy, and we'll leave kind of
Speaker 1: that that oily residue behind. Um, hand soup is a
Speaker 1: perfectly fine substitute for just soup. Absolutely in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, soapa soapa soap and something is better than nothing,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, totally acceptable. I would say try to
Speaker 1: use the hottest water you can that that's always great
Speaker 1: to do, and to make sure that you rinse them
Speaker 1: out very well after you use the soap. This is
Speaker 1: kind of a funny little sidebar. Um ingesting soap can
Speaker 1: lead to g I distress it can it can like
Speaker 1: upset your stomach. I won't I want to get super
Speaker 1: graphic when I go into it, but I'll just leave
Speaker 1: it at that. So you don't want to, um, you
Speaker 1: don't want to have so well when you don't have
Speaker 1: soapy coffee because that taste gross. Um, but also just
Speaker 1: because like it might have set your stomach to be
Speaker 1: drinking soap. Okay, sorry, I feel like you have a
Speaker 1: reaction to that, and I'm just stunned into silence. To
Speaker 1: put this nicely, the soap will have a similar effect
Speaker 1: that the coffee will. And you're all between the lines
Speaker 1: and you know what I'm talking very subtly put thank you.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to be I'm trying to be gracious,
Speaker 1: very well done. So before we wrap up, someone sent
Speaker 1: us an all staff email that was sent out in
Speaker 1: their office about a pretty gross cleaning issue. Do you
Speaker 1: want to do the honors and read it? I do.
Speaker 1: I love these, um, so we should say that. When
Speaker 1: when you came and guested on Aspect Clean Person the podcast,
Speaker 1: we had one of these these great you know, inter
Speaker 1: office emails about you know, someone's just doing something super
Speaker 1: disgusting and I loved it, and I was really hope
Speaker 1: that we would get more of them, and indeed we
Speaker 1: did get one, so I was super excited that we
Speaker 1: could read this one. Um, it's on the short side.
Speaker 1: We're not going to say the name of the company
Speaker 1: because we promised that we would keep it anonymous. But
Speaker 1: here here's what the note said, Hi all, can we
Speaker 1: please be more considerate of tidiness in the suite? I
Speaker 1: saw a lot, and a lot is in all caps.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of nail clippings over the floor
Speaker 1: of one of the rooms this weekend. This isn't acceptable.
Speaker 1: Don't do it and be clean. Exclamation point. This is gross, right,
Speaker 1: Like people should not be leaving nail clippings on the
Speaker 1: floor at work. You shouldn't be leaving nail clippings on
Speaker 1: the floor anywhere ever. That's disgusting, you know, in the
Speaker 1: most universally accepted thing in the world that like the
Speaker 1: sound of nail clipping is disgusting. Theil clippings themselves are disgusting. Also,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm Italian and I'm superstitious, So like there's
Speaker 1: a whole thing about like not letting um anybody come
Speaker 1: into possession of your nail clippings because they could use
Speaker 1: it to like curse you and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: So like just just out of that self preservation. If
Speaker 1: someone left nail clippings around the office, I would, you
Speaker 1: bet your bottom dollar I would don a Rubbert glove
Speaker 1: pick them up and go lay some courses. Yes, In
Speaker 1: the very early years of Ask Manager, I had a
Speaker 1: letter from someone who kept finding this is so gross.
Speaker 1: She kept finding nail clippings in her desk drawer and
Speaker 1: on her chair, and she said she had been keeping
Speaker 1: like a little mini nail kit in her desk, and
Speaker 1: clearly she was just keeping it there in case she
Speaker 1: had like a one broken nail that she needed to fix,
Speaker 1: but clearly someone was using it, borrowing it the way
Speaker 1: they would borrow a stapler, I guess. And she was
Speaker 1: of course grossed out and ended up throwing the nail
Speaker 1: kit away, after which the problem stopped. But I remember
Speaker 1: there was an update to it. Um well, she had
Speaker 1: taken it to HR and they had had this very
Speaker 1: strange reaction. They thought someone was doing it to intentionally
Speaker 1: harass her, like it was like an active aggression, which
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily buy into. It turned out that there
Speaker 1: were nighttime cleaning people who are coming through, and I
Speaker 1: guess at one point someone had discovered, like, oh, here's
Speaker 1: this nail care kit. I mean to take this opportunity
Speaker 1: to deal with my nails, and they were just doing
Speaker 1: it into her drawer. Oh yes. And I've also had
Speaker 1: more than one letter complaining about being able to hear
Speaker 1: coworkers clipping their nails in the next cubicle. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really do think that quickly fixing a broken nail
Speaker 1: at work is totally fine. But I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on with people who are regularly trimming their entire
Speaker 1: set of nails at work. Yeah, no, no, no, that's
Speaker 1: private behavior. You can't no no, no no no, like
Speaker 1: you can't you can't be clipping nails in public, Like
Speaker 1: that's this private behavior. Even if you live with other people,
Speaker 1: you should be in the bathroom with the door close
Speaker 1: so they don't have to hear it, Like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's horrible, horrible that. I love this memo that went
Speaker 1: out about it, and I have to say I love
Speaker 1: the whole genre of slightly outraged and disgusted memos that
Speaker 1: get sent to all staff about cleaning issues like every
Speaker 1: single one I think is a magnificent work of beauty.
Speaker 1: I do too. I'm with you on that, and so
Speaker 1: we should say that if you guys have any that
Speaker 1: you want to share with us, you can and we
Speaker 1: will love it, and we will not make them public
Speaker 1: if you don't want us to toew and we will
Speaker 1: make them public anonymously if like, you're cool with sharing
Speaker 1: but obviously don't want your company name attached, like we
Speaker 1: just love getting me. Yes, send them on. I hope
Speaker 1: we get more. Yes, the world needs more of these. Well, Julie,
Speaker 1: it's been so wonderful to have you here today. This
Speaker 1: has been so great. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: This is really really fun. I gotta get you back
Speaker 1: on Ask the Clean Person the podcast, though, I will
Speaker 1: come back any time. We still have. We saw so
Speaker 1: much to cover. Hostly is so much intersection of what
Speaker 1: we both do and it's so I I love the
Speaker 1: ask episode. Yes me too. Will you tell people where
Speaker 1: they can find you if they want to learn more
Speaker 1: about what you do? Sure thing, Um, you can find
Speaker 1: my podcast Ask Your Clean Personal podcasts in any place
Speaker 1: that you listen to podcasts. iTunes, a cast stitch are
Speaker 1: all those good places. You can find me on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Jolly Care j O l I E
Speaker 1: K E r R. I'm also on Facebook, Facebook, dot
Speaker 1: com slash ask a Clean Person. Most of my writing
Speaker 1: is at The New York Times, so you can find
Speaker 1: me there and you can email me if you have
Speaker 1: cleaning questions. Jolly Carret gmail dot com. Awesome, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Thank you, Alison, thanks for listening to the
Speaker 1: Ask a Manager Podcast. If you'd like to come on
Speaker 1: the show to talk through your own question, email it
Speaker 1: to podcast at Asking Manager dot org, or you can
Speaker 1: leave a recording of your question by calling eight five
Speaker 1: five f T six work. That's eight five five f
Speaker 1: T six nine seven five. You can get more ask
Speaker 1: a Manager at ask a Manager dot org or in
Speaker 1: my book Ask a Manager, How did navigate clueless colleagues,
Speaker 1: lunch stealing bosses, and the rest of your life at work?
Speaker 1: The Aska Manager Show is a partnership with How Stuff
Speaker 1: Works and is produced by Paul Deckett. If you liked
Speaker 1: what you heard, please take a minute to subscribe, rate
Speaker 1: and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play.
Speaker 1: I'm Alison Green and I'll be back next week. With
Speaker 1: another one of your questions. H