Tag Archives: maintenance at height

Something for everyone on the menu

We’re in the midst of the London restaurant festival – a month celebrating the diversity and quality of eateries and food on offer in our great capital, with 350 restaurants across the city taking part.

Overall, apparently there are around 17,000 restaurants in London and in many ways, they sum up the nature of the city better than any other feature. The range in budgets, cultures, locations, attitudes and appearances is truly mind boggling – a real cosmopolitan melting pot.

Whether you head to the East End for pie and mash, Little Italy for pasta, Chinatown for dim sum or the burrito van on the South Bank, there truly is something for everyone.

The restaurants really are part of what makes London great, and I haven’t even started on the buildings they are in. Some of the high level restaurants, such as the Aqua Shard or Duck & Waffle in the Heron Tower near Liverpool Street, provide views seen by very few Londoners (except those who work in high level cleaning or high level maintenance like us!).

However, in common with the cleaning industry, the hospitality industry as a whole is not known for the longevity of its staff, or its generous wage levels. We’ve seen numerous examples in our industry of the benefits that come with paying the Living Wage, including – but not limited to – happier, more motivated staff, easier recruitment, better retention levels, and happier customers.

The end of the restaurant festival coincides with this year’s Living Wage Week (30 October to 5 November). Wouldn’t it be great if the overlap was more than just on the calendar and we saw an increase in the number of restaurants signing up to pay the fair wage?

Blog post: Take some advice from an expert

by Sean Canty, Director, CAM Specialist Support

Whatever views you held during the ‘Brexit’ referendum, perhaps the most surprising aspect was people’s willingness to heed the advice ‘not to listen to experts’. It’s a phenomena apparently equally at home in Donald Trump’s quest for the presidency of the United States.

It’s a pretty frightening turn of events. Taken in the context of whether or not to leave the European Union the advice sounds a little on the implausible side, but in other contexts it is downright dangerous. Experts, whatever their field, become so through years of studying and experience, and what they think shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The internet has done many wonderful things, information can now be shared widely and we no longer have to rely on monopoly media outlets for our news. However, the old adage ‘don’t believe everything you read’ remains as true as ever when you don’t know who is publishing it or why. We continue to need reliable, independent experts across a variety of subjects who can help us ‘sort the wheat from the chaff’.

In our industry for instance not everyone understands what working at height encompasses and they often don’t appreciate the risks of even a seemingly mundane task. Anything that means taking a step off the ground, or where there’s a danger of falling, is a work at height task and should only be undertaken by a competent person with the right equipment.

We are experts at cleaning at height and conducting maintenance at height and provide FM services in London and the surrounding areas – we have industry-recognised training, years of experience and a variety of specialist equipment to take on any task whether just above head height or multiple stories up in inaccessible locations.

We conduct individual risk assessments for every job and don’t just rely on generic forms. Anything less would be dangerous for our operatives and the general public, which isn’t a risk worth taking.

So please, whatever your political persuasion, don’t forget they’re called experts for a reason, and you ignore them at your peril!