Role reversal: Bosses come clean

It was a night shift with a difference as workers who normally clean floors and windows got the chance to order their bosses around.

Senior managers from Festival City Mall swapped their suits and ties for brooms and dustbins as they spent an eight-hour shift finding out what it is like to clean up after all have left for the day.

Johnny Moura, a housekeeping attendant at the mall, had the task of ensuring that Tom Miles, Director of Shopping Centres at Al Futtaim Group Real Estate, did his job for the night.

Felt proud

Moura, originally from Goa, India has been working at the mall for two years as a window cleaner and bin emptier. “I felt so proud that he would spend the shift with us to find out how we worked.''

The ‘shift' began at 10pm. Moura said, “I only had to explain to him how to do things once. He did it without any complaints.

“Everyone who is on my shift was very happy that the managers took time to see how we work.

“It is a long shift and there is a lot of walking about but he handled it very well. He spent part of the night cleaning the windows on the link bridge to Ikea and did a very good job.''
Tom Miles told XPRESS he had learnt a lot from the experience. “The last time I did anything like that was a couple of decades ago when I worked as a janitor in my high school,'' he said.

Around nine managers took part in the event, accompanied by 20 “supervisors'' who made sure they did the work properly.

Miles said: “The supervisors were the workers who would normally do the jobs we were doing.

“The whole inspiration for this came from one of the managers who felt it would be a good way to understand what our staff experience.

“It's definitely made me appreciate the work that they do.

“One of the things I never realised was how many people are still in the mall in the early hours.''

Rafiq Qureshi, the security and housekeeping manager, had to operate the mobile cleaning machine throughout the shift.

He said: “It was my job to clean the floors of the entire mall.
“It's really been a worthwhile exercise and everyone who took part had their eyes opened to what our staff do. It was great to see the reaction from the people who normally do the shift and was a real boost to morale.''

The exercise was so successful that plans are afoot to hold similar exercises once a month.