Gotta love the janitorial assignment

[Cnsl1]

Gist of email received recently:

Our ward has been assigned to clean the church March, April, and June, July. We are asking the families receiving this email to clean March 5 and June 4. If you can't that day, please find another family to fill in for you.

I'm looking for a response.

Option 1
I hired Brother and Sister Smith to clean those days for me. They've been a little short every month since their daughter decided to go on a mission and now they have two kids out at the same time. They said they're looking for weekend work. I'm using my tithing money to pay them and encouraging everyone else to do the same. They used to have the calling of ward cleaning specialists, so they know what to do.

Option 2
I cleaned up after myself last Sunday and will continue whenever I attend.

Option 3
I'm happy to clean a building owed by a billion dollar corporation who can more than afford a full time janitor at each chapel they own, as well as at every temple and stake center. I will cheerfully donate my valuable time and be grateful for the opportunity to serve my church by vacuuming cheerios, cleaning smudges, and mopping bathrooms for 3 hours twice a year. Name of jeseskristamin.

Option 4
I'm already booked that day.
It's not my responsibility to find a replacement for a job I never agreed to do in the first place. My goals aren't your goals, sayeth me.

Option 5
Go #@$% yourself.


On the other hand... no need to shoot the poor messenger who is being pressured from those above him to get volunteers to clean the church. I know it's going to be the STFs who end up cleaning (same three families) and they could obviously use a hand. I could climb on a soapbox and complain about this and no change would happen. Or I can bite my tongue and help.

Or completely ignore the email.

Yeah, probably that last thing.. option 7.

[nibbler]

If you can't that day, please find another family to fill in for you.

I'm sure they do this because it really sucks to be the poor sap that gets stuck with filling out assignments that no one wants to do. It's so much easier to offload the responsibility entirely; make assignments without any input and tell people they're on the hook to find replacements. Dusts off hands, my assignment is done!

But as you say, poor form to hold someone to something that they never agreed to. The "voluntold" approach is a very bad one.

There's an out. Play the UNO reverse card.

Brother Facilities Coordinator Guy,

I'm not available to clean the building on March 5th or June 4th. I'm assigning you the responsibility of cleaning the building those days. If you can't, please find another family to fill in for you.

Sincerely,

Cnsl1

[Linked]

Option 9: I feel for the spot you are in Brother Organizer, but assigning me a date randomly including the requirement to find a substitute is not ok. That's a high pressure tactic with an assumed tie to my eternal welfare, that is inappropriate. People refusing to clean and skipping these assignments are not the problem. The problem is that this is an unreasonable demand on our time. Making these assignments is an unreasonable demand of you. You have been setup to fail. I hope you can succeed by refusing this unreasonable request of you. Good luck! (I won't be there)

[Cnsl1]

Thanks for the responses. Made me laugh.

And sorry for the janitorial misspelling. I usually don't miss the easy ones, but I've got it cleaned up now... but I'm not cleaning the cheerios on Saturday morning.

Got this text today:
"please arrive at 7am and bring your entire household. Thank you for your willingness to serve."

Not.. "can you please help?"
Or... "did you get the email?"

I'm thinking of showing up with a couple of dogs and a cat.

[dogbite]

Give them a junk email you don't check.

Set up a spam filter for the church content.

I ended up removing my email entirely and never updating things. But the was looking ago. You probably can't do that anymore. My phone numberhas changed since then too.

[Red Ryder]

I vote for the UNO reverse card!

It’s been a few years since our family helped clean the church. Partially because of covid and partially because Saturdays are busy.

I don’t mind helping on the surface level.

But please for Gods sake…. Hire a deep cleaning service that can rid the building of the dirty diaper and moldy water smell! It stinks so bad the second you walk through the door.

Who wants to join and attend a church that smells really bad?