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Harriet McPhail is a Sr. Day Porter with Continuum Services at the Kennedy Square Office Building in Detroit and has been named a finalist in the Rockstar Custodian Contest.

“Harriet is a trainer, leader, Rock Star, and has the experience to handle any situation professionally,” writes Bill Raese, supervisor of day porters and general maintenance for Continuum Services.  

She knows exactly what to do in an emergency situation. During a building evacuation that blocked a city street, Ms. McPhail worked with tenants, guiding them to their specific meeting areas. She is great at communicating at the monthly team meetings and following up with an email on any issue at any time.  She is an example to others as to following proper procedures for; safety, HR, IT, and all company policies and procedures.  

Harriet uses resources like CleanLink (articles, videos, and product demonstrations), Crain's Detroit Business publications, and Google. She has relationships with custodians from the surrounding buildings and other City of Detroit workers in the area that picks up trash from the city trash receptacles. 

Harriet is a founding member of our Safety Committee, She is also one of 7 people from our entire company that was on the committee to create our company’s "Core Values"  Which are Integrity, Teamwork, Dependability, Trust, and Quality.  More importantly, she represents all of our core values.

Before Covid, Ms. McPhail participated in our American Heart Association Wear Red program. She is an all-around servant to her tenants and guests to her building.  

Harriet takes ownership of her building and gets involved, plans, and will come in early if it is windy or rainy to clean up around the outside of the building. 

She takes on tasks without being asked, such as distributing the paper supplies, recommending a dispenser change for toilet paper, and does not allow hand towels to be used for cleaning, which results in savings to the building of thousands.  

In order to help teams with upcoming building Audits, Harriet has visited buildings two months before and spoke with each porter to show them the details of areas that needed improvement before the actual Audit.

Harriet has trained new custodians or what we call, Day Porters with an optimistic and positive attitude that others pick up because of her “can do” spirit.  

As a Sr. Day Porter, Harriet gives 100 percent to her position and has done so over her 20-year tenure with Continuum Services. 

The Rock Star series breaks down the word, 'CUSTODIAN', outlining the nine personality traits the Academy is looking for in the nominees. Tens of thousands of custodians across the nation have experienced the Rock Star program this year. You can vote and learn more about the program at www.RockStarCustodian.com. Voting for Harriet McPhail is open through Dec. 15, 2021, with the award for Rock Star Custodian of 2021 coming in Jan. 2022.