3 ms·

I've always wondered why we outsource cleaning and janitorial staff? It's so unnecessary and cruel. Make them part of the team.

• pcurve 12y ago
  Same reason why many companies (including probably Google) outsources landscaping work even though there's work to be done every year around. The subcontracted companies have foreman and managers who are much better equipped to train people in janitorial, cleaning, and landscaping work than Google. Whatever the motive, I applaud the move.
• wtbob 12y ago
  Perhaps the skills needed to find, recruit and manage janitorial staff are different from the skills needed to find, recruit and manage developers? Almost every company outsources electricity generation, too.
• joezydeco 12y ago
  Janitorial staff need direction and supervision. If you hire a lot of janitors in a place like Google, which has many buildings, you need to track them all, give them proper equipment/resources, and check their work. A lot of times it's just easier (and cheaper, of course) to hire a firm that's more skilled in this work than to try and manage it all yourselves. It's one contact with a simple objective: clean the buildings. If the buildings aren't cleaned, the company can be replaced.
• pacaro 12y ago
  Often (although this might not be relevant for Google) these services are provided by the owner/operator of the building, replacing them can be tricky for all sorts of reasons, not least of which is that you may be displacing union jobs