A reader comments: "I disagree with your encouraging the person on stripping and waxing the floor. He obviously does not have any real experience in floor work and will not end up with a satisfactory job. How do you respond?"

Your points are well taken. We all have to start somewhere and many of us learn by trial and error. My goal was to minimize his errors until he gets more hands on experience in floor care. In the process of keeping these one minute tips to approximately 300 words each, I have to summarize some of the information that was passed on to the person who asked the original question. I had a couple of extended conversations with the budding floor tech and stressed he find support from his vendor to fill in the gaps of his current knowledge. He insisted that he needed to do the job himself with the equipment he already had and that he did have some background in operating a buffer/floor machine. I did the best I could to give him the basic steps and some of the things to watch out for but expect that he will learn more from his mistakes than from my suggestions.

One recommendation I made to him on the phone was that he get a job with a company that could provide him with proper training so long as he does not violate any no-compete clauses. This may mean that he go out of the area to work for a company at least to learn some basic skills. He certainly should not try to steal any business away from whoever trains him.

My recommendation to anyone just starting out is to identify a local janitorial distributor who has weekend workshops or provides other supports so long as you are buying from them. It is inappropriate for a person to use the distributor training and buy somewhere else to save a few dollars. They would be much better served by giving he local distributor all their business and growing over time.

Thanks again for your feedback. Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 7/8/2015