Retail Cleaning and Maintenance

Another group of “behind the scenes” people is the cleaning and maintenance team.

In most cases, there is a single shift of these workers, who come in at night, usually working the 11 PM to 8 AM shift. Without cleaning and maintenance people, however, retail stores everywhere would shut down.

Cleaning and maintenance workers have dozens of duties – some that they perform every night, some once a week and some even less often. Here are just some of the things the night crew might do:

• Wash floors
• Buff floors
• Shampoo carpets
• Wash windows and walls
• Dust
• Clean bathrooms (employee and customer)
• Exterminate pests
• Decorate for the holidays
• Empty trash cans
• Paint
• Minor construction repairs
• Yard maintenance
• Equipment care and repair
• Sanitization

The worst part of being on the cleaning and maintenance crew is the hours. Because stores want shopping to be the main focus of the business hours, maintenance and cleaning crews usually work at night. There is usually only one person or a small team (if the company is really large) working on cleaning and maintenance during the day.

To join a cleaning and maintenance crew, you don’t need any special education (although it is not the best job for high school kids, given the hours). Your training will be on-the-job. These entry-level positions don’t pay well, but the good news is, once again, that this can be a stepping-stone. When there is a night cleaning crew, there is usually a supervisor, which means that you’d get more money, and from there, you can also move up to working in a warehouse, which has an even higher rate of pay.