Cleaning As A Career – Catherine Wyatt

I’ve loved keeping things clean from the beginning. In my teens, I was washing cars and sweeping train station platforms for cash. My family has worked on the railways for generations, and I followed suit. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I learned about customer service, risk management, and auditing would prepare me for a career in operational management. Eventually, I landed a job with the airline Flybe, managing a team that made a fleet of 96 aircraft clean and presentable each day.

Since then, I’ve built my cleaning management career across a range of sectors. My successes at Sainsbury’s and Waitrose stores earned me a Kimberley Clarke Gold Services Award, plus a new nickname:

‘Trouble with a Capital T’ – as in troubleshooting: if someone had a problem that needed a radical fix, they came to me!

With Samsic

Now I’m Samsic’s Regional Operations Manager for the South West, Bristol and Wales.  And it’s the milestones I remember. Recently a client of ours, a major pharmaceutical company, commissioned me to write a White Paper that rigorously analysed and completely re-imagined their cleaning operation.  The team, the process, the equipment: it all went back to the drawing board. The result was a more streamlined operation than ever – we saved them 50 hours of cleaning a week.

What drives me forward? It’s my passion to always learn and improve what I’m doing – and not just for my benefit. I’m nurturing up-and-coming talent in the industry, handing on the training and mentoring that set me up so well for my own career journey. It’s about spotting potential in those who could easily be overlooked, and showing them what they’re capable of so that they might build the confidence to make their dreams happen too.

The world will always need cleaning. I’m on a mission to find out how good it can be and helping the next generation to do the same.