Commercial Cleaning Technician Breaks

The Importance of Breaks

You probably already know that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn't require employers to provide lunch or snack breaks. However, the U.S. Department of Labor does say that when employers offer short (5-20 minute) breaks they are considered as “compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked.” The DOL also states that 30-minute meal breaks (as long as they are duty-free) do not have to be paid.

Commercial Cleaning Technician Breaks

Specific rules about breaks are handled on the state level, and states have varying statutes on their books.

• For example, in Illinois, employees are required to have a break of “at least 20 minutes, no later than 5 hours after the start of the work period, to employees who work 7 1/2 continuous hours or more.”
  
  
• In Rhode Island, employees are entitled to a 20-minute mealtime within a 6-hour work shift and a 30-minute mealtime within an 8-hour work shift.
  
  
• In Colorado, workers are entitled to a 30-minute mealtime break if the shift exceeds 5 consecutive hours.
  
  
• In Minnesota, the law requires “sufficient unpaid time for employees who work 8 consecutive hours or more. Rest periods of less than 20 minutes may not be deducted from total hours worked.”
  
  
• 20 states, including the ones discussed above, have instituted their own laws to regulate lunch breaks and rest breaks, but 30 states have not.

You have to obey the law of whichever state your business is located in. However, consider the fact that the law only dictates the bare minimum. You are in charge of making your policies for your cleaning company; weigh break time expectations carefully as you write your business plan.

Obviously, you don't want wasted time to cause your janitorial business to lose money. You are operating a business, after all, and you do need to make a profit to keep it running and profitable. However, at the same time, you need to take care of your employees. Having flexibility when it comes to breaks can benefit both your employees and your company.

Things to consider:

• Suppose two of your cleaners are off the clock and eating their meal, but another cleaner needs help with a malfunctioning floor burnisher. Do the first two workers get to continue their lunch before assisting? Do they go to help immediately? If they do help, is that time added on to the end of their lunch break?
  
  
• Do you allow unlimited bathroom breaks and stretch breaks as long as the work is finished by the end of the shift? That may seem like a ridiculous question, but consider all of the news stories in the past year about Amazon workers being forced to skip bathroom breaks (or to urinate in bottles) because of strict rules and close monitoring. As recently as December 22, 2021, Amazon workers walked off their jobs at 2 Chicago facilities to protest shortened break times.

Break Benefits:

1. In this time of chronic worker shortage, something as simple as having a flexible attitude towards breaks could make a difference in retaining staff. For a cleaning company, it costs anywhere from $500 to $2500 or more to recruit, hire, and train a new employee. It makes sense for you to create a working environment that encourages employees to feel valued as human beings so that they, in turn, feel loyalty to your janitorial business.
   
   
2. You never know (again, especially in this time of rapidly spreading COVID-19 variants) when you may need to ask someone to fill in on their day off for a sick colleague. You are far more likely to get a “yes” from someone you have been flexible with in the past.
   
   
3. Making sure that your workers are rested is especially important if they are working at night, a work schedule very common for office cleaners in particular. The United States Department of Labor warns that “long work hours may increase the risk of injuries and accidents and can contribute to poor health and worker fatigue,” and the CDC warns that high levels of fatigue can affect any worker in any occupation or industry with serious consequences for worker safety and health.”
   
   
4. For employees who work in a physically demanding janitorial job, the ability to take occasional breaks is crucial. Workers have to be physiologically able to handle heavy equipment and mentally ready and able to work with hazardous chemicals safely.
   
   
5. Breaks can help to refocus the mind and body for the tasks that lie ahead.
   
   
6. Breaks improve morale and mental health.
   
   
7. Breaks improve employee engagement.
   
   
   

Breaks don't have to be long to be effective:

One study by an assistant professor at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his colleagues found that participants who took more micro-breaks at work had an increased positive effect at work. The breaks could be for socializing, relaxing, enjoying a nutritional snack or a drink, or engaging in cognitive activities such as reading the news or watching short video clips.

Consequences for lack of breaks:

Perhaps your cleaners are driven workers who prefer not to take many breaks; you may even need to be the person who encourages the taking of extra breaks to avoid worker fatigue and burnout.

1. Worker fatigue can cause safety issues. The Mayo Clinic defines job burnout as “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity” and cites one cause of burnout as the inability to have control over one's own workload or schedule. The consequences can include:
   
   

• Excessive stress
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sadness, anger, or irritability
• Alcohol or substance misuse
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• Vulnerability to illnesses

1. Physical fatigue can lead to mistakes that cause injuries. Even having the freedom to take a 5-minute break can help employees ward off tiredness and warm up enough to prevent muscle strains. In a cleaning job, people are constantly bending, lifting, twisting, or carrying. They need periodic rests.
   
   
2. Lack of breaks can cause mental fatigue and mental health issues like depression.
   
   
3. Adequate breaks are just one way you can show respect and concern for the well-being of your employees. Satisfied employees are more likely to recommend your company when others are looking for a job.

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