NY Times Reminds Us That Cleaning Is Hard

It’s easy to take for granted the hard work people put into maintaining the environs, but last week’s snowstorm should be an opportunity to appreciate when things do get done. So when the New York Times ran a Q&A with an employee at Manhattan Beach’s Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care (1516 Oriental Street), it struck us as a well-timed piece to bring to your attention.

This man’s dedication to his job is crystal clear. Luis Arroyo, a floor buffer at the Menorah Center,  takes extra care in his job making sure the institution’s floors sparkle and shine without being slippery.

“You have to keep the floors beautiful and clean and safe for the residents,” the 61-year-old Puerto Rican native told the Times. “They can’t be slippery. You have to really care.”

To get to his job, Arroyo has to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and trek from his home in Kew Gardens, Queens to get to the center.  He admits it’s not easy. “You got to make sure you don’t lose your job, because if you lose your job, you lose everything.”

Arroyo takes pride in his work calling it his profession. But he does confess to having some less than favorable moments in the job. For Arroyo, the hardest rooms to clean are the physical therapy and occupational therapy rooms because of the sheer size of both rooms and the enormous amount of equipment he needs to move around.

And if you think Arroyo’s work ends when he leaves the center, you’re wrong.  Arroyo makes sure the wooden floors in his house shine as much as the ones he leaves for center’s residents. But of course he also makes sure they’re not slippery.

I think we’ve just found our next candidate for Department of Sanitation commissioner, no?