Cleaners At Risk in Credit Crunch - Friday the 13th

Domestic helps and window cleaners in Northamptonshire could be among the trades hit by the recession, as householders become more self-reliant, a major insurer has warned. Figures from Legal and General, released today, show people were becoming more self-reliant when it came to odd jobs around the home. The insurer found 45 per cent of people who employed some sort of home help in 2008 were cutting back, with 23 per cent of householders employing people to help around the house, compared with 42 per cent in February 2008. Jodie Gascoigne (pictured) set up Maid 2 Shine, a domestic cleaning company, three years ago with money from the Prince's Trust. She said she had noticed a small drop in the number of clients. She added: "It's quieter. The phone isn't ringing as often and there has been the odd cancellation. People do want their homes cleaned, though, so they tend to try to find an alternative, like cutting back. "I hope for more spring cleans and one-off cleans within the next six weeks, so we will see it pick up." Legal and General found there had been a 48 per cent drop in the number of households that employed a window cleaner.
Dave Moore, of Grange Park Window Cleaning Services, said: "I have a few customers who have cut back from one month to two months, but it's not much different. I wouldn't say it's affected me in a major way." But commercial window cleaners said the recession had left them relatively unscathed. John Devall, of Devall's Window Cleaning, in St David's, Northampton, said: "We have lost two or three jobs, but we're picking them up at the same time. If you've got dirty premises, people won't go into them. "People are always ringing me up and asking if I do domestic." Pete Goodwin, of GB Window Cleaning Services, in Ecton Brook, Northampton, said his company's schedules were changing as a result of recession.
He said: "Where companies used to have it done monthly, it's changing to quarterly. They're cutting back like everybody. There are a lot of places closing down and it affects us as well."
"We don't expect to do much this year, except keep going. "There's plenty of glass out there, so we can pick the work up. We're not like other industries, which rely on companies to give them work. "Even if it's once a year, people need their windows cleaning."

Friday, 13 February 2009: There are two main theories to why walking under a ladder is unlucky – some believe that in medieval times, a leaning ladder was thought to resemble a gallows, so if you walked under a ladder you were guaranteeing your own death by hanging. Others believe the triangle made by the ladder against the wall is the symbol of the Holy Trinity and by walking through the triangle, you are violating God and will be punished. David Whale, from Pane in the Glass window cleaners, in Kettering, said: "We use ladders all the time and people are always very wary about walking under them." Window cleaners around Kettering have also reported people crossing the road to avoid walking beneath them when they are out working and have noticed people are more likely to avoid walking beneath them on Friday the 13th. Pictured: Fingers crossed – Marco Martinelli takes his chances under window cleaner David Whale’s ladder.

Tesco saved my eyesight, says George Green father: A FORTUNATE father is looking at life in a new light after a free eye test at a Slough supermarket saved his sight. Colin Stares dropped into Tesco in Wellington Street to pick up some paracetamol for a headache when the offer caught his attention. Forty-eight hours later the former window cleaner was undergoing emergency eye surgery to tackle a severe case of Glaucoma - a rare disorder that could have blinded him within weeks. The 49-year-old from George Green this week visited staff at the pharmacy to thank them for saving his sight in the nick of time. He said: “I was getting severe headaches and I was in a hurry so I thought I should really quickly go and get some headache tablets. I saw they had a big eye-unit where they scan eyes for free - and at the time I thought I was just saving myself a tenner.”
Pharmacist Jameel Zuman found he was suffering from dangerously high eye pressure and immediately packed him off to Prince Charles Eye Unit at the King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor.
Colin, who closed his window cleaning business in 2007 to help raise his two-year old son, Cameron, said he was two or three weeks away from total blindness: “Tesco were brilliant - if they hadn’t spotted the problem I might not have been able to see my son grow up.”
Doctors found he was suffering from Primary Closed Angle Glaucoma - a condition that is extremely rare among under-50s. It is caused by the failure of tear ducts to effectively lubricate the eye and can cause eyesight to rapidly deteriorate. Five months on, Colin has been given the all clear this week and is telling anyone with a headache to check themselves in for an eye-test.