Washington: DLI clarifies section of window cleaning standard: The Department of Labor and Industries has added language to the Window Cleaning Safety, Section 5.7.12. The part that was omitted would enable employers to use a rope descent system to above 300 feet in height if the windows cannot be safely and practicably accessed through other means. The addition of the language makes Section 5.7.12 consistent with current requirements in Washington Administrative Code 296-878-20005 pertaining to selecting appropriate rope descent systems. The changes will go into effect June 1. For more information, visit
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
IMPACT43 launch emergency first aid: The HSE approved 'Emergency First Aid at Work' Course has been specially designed for
Window Cleaners. The course covers First Aid Management for harness suspension when working at height - and concentrates on a study of the vital business of Suspension Trauma Recovery. Several High Level Window Cleaning Companies have already completed for the course, including London based Gaze a Glaze and Tailor Made Window Cleaning Limited. According to David Willis, Partner at Impact43: ‘The Health and Safety Executive is clear that when contemplating working at height – and in particular when considering the use of a fall arrest system – employers need to consider any emergency or rescue procedures that may be required. It’s important that detailed emergency and effective rescue plans are in place, and companies need to be aware that it is not acceptable practice just to rely on the public emergency services.’
Part of the course will focus on methods of facilitating emergency first aid and the need for correct procedures and instruction. Far too many companies and employees still refer to the incorrect recovery position, for example. ‘Emergency procedures need to be considered for reasonably foreseeable circumstances,’ said David. ‘All measures deemed necessary should be covered in the risk assessment, and suitable plans must be in place prior to any work activity being carried out.’
A Job Title By Any Other Name: Some titles emerge as a sign of the times; for example, Chief Blogger or Search Engine Optimization Specialist. Then, there are some titles that put a new spin on a known job, or have been changed to improve a job’s image or that of the worker doing the job. Yesterday’s Personnel Director became the Human Resources Administrator, which has now morphed into a Talent Strategist. Some companies call their Receptionist team Customer Care Associates to emphasize current trends toward customer loyalty and user-friendly service. It’s all part of new attention given to corporate and personal branding. For some, it helps to emphasize a particular focus or to realign new business goals. I’m all for making sure people have titles that accurately describe what they do and also make them feel good about it, but I do think some of the hype to improve an occupation’s perception is a little over the top. The Brits did a survey of 4,000 workers and polled them on the website www.jobs2view.com to identify “the most daft” job titles. The winner, with 28 percent of the vote, was Vision Clearance Engineer—also known as a Window Washer.
The story of a tiny baby in her fight to cling to life was featured in a television documentary this week. Parents Ian Massey and Marie Wainwright, of Charsley Close, Little Chalfont, were filmed for BBC series Children's Emergency as their premature baby Isabelle battled through numerous health problems in her first few months. Isabelle was born on July 17, 2008, weighing just 1lb 14oz after Marie went into labour suddenly during the 24th week of her pregnancy. Ms Wainwright, 30, said: "I was giving birth to my first child when I had only just come to terms with the fact I was pregnant and getting a little bump. Isabelle, who measured just 23cm long, suffered a heart valve problem, a bleed on the brain, eye and lung difficulties. Her parents could not hold her for the first 18 days of her life. Ian, 32, had to give up four months of work as a self-employed window cleaner so that he could spend time with Marie at Isabelle's bedside.
Proposal 18-A is a local law proposed to amend the administrative code of the City of New York in relation to establishing a prevailing wage requirement for building service employees in buildings owned or managed, in whole or in part, by persons receiving financial assistance or rent derived, in whole or in part, from the city treasury. Essentially, if a building owner were to rent space to any of those tenants, they would be required to increase their payroll to bring all building service workers up to prevailing-wage levels. The term "building service workers" covers a vast array of employees. Such workers are defined as those who perform work in connection with the care or maintenance of an existing building; such work includes window cleaning.
The death of Clapton’s son has been a source of urban legends. Many people believe Clapton was at the apartment and could have prevented the boy’s death, according to media reports. In fact, Clapton, who wrote the hit “Tears in Heaven,” about his son’s death, was at a hotel in NYC and was not in the apartment of the boy’s mother when the death occurred. A cleaning person had just cleaned the window and left it open to vent the room when Conor came running in and fell through the window to his death, according to news reports.
GRAVESEND: Town centre truck pull raises £5,000. A sponsored truck pull through a town centre has raised more than £5,000 for a charity which supports soldiers wounded on the front line. Former soldier John Ball, who was in the Queen’s Regiment, organised the event in Gravesend town centre in aid of Help for Heroes. The 10.5 tonne truck was pulled by Mr Ball and friends from the Royal School of Engineering from Windmill Street to New Road in less than three minutes. Window cleaner Mr Ball, aged 42, said: “The town was ram-packed and there was a fantastic response. “It was quite a task I have to say. “I thought we needed something to liven up the town and it really brought people in.”
Doncaster's Dean Cockburn will make a low-key four round return to the ring at the Dome on Friday night, but he has got his sights on bigger fights in the months ahead. "What I really want to do is to get back down to super-middleweight and to have a crack at the British title," said the former Central Area champion. It is four years since the hard-hitting Cockburn last stepped into the ring and he is the first to admit that he has piled on the weight since he hung up his gloves to due to a combination of losing interest in the sport and wanting to concentrate on building up his window cleaning business.
Rainforths turn 30th anniversary into playgrounds: The traditional 30th anniversary present for married couples is pearls, but long-time locals Lance and Lynne Rainforth are hoping for monkey bars instead. On Sunday, May 30 at 6 p.m. they are hosting an anniversary party and pig roast at the Southside Diner and donating the proceeds to Playground Builders, an organization that builds play areas for children in areas impacted by war and poverty. The Rainforth's have canvassed local businesses for donations to their silent auction, which will include a six-by-six handknit mohair blanket valued over $1,000. Their goal is to raise $3,000 in total, or $100 for every year they've been married. You don't need to know the Rainforths or their company, Great Panes Window Cleaning, to drop by; all are welcome to come out and enjoy the pig roast and party.
ESRI Canada faced other challenges such as winds, loading capacity and logistics for a project located in a busy commercial area of east Toronto, and shares the following items that needed to be addressed: “Wind velocity, particularly nine stories above ground, needed to be factored into plant selection and installation. An 85-ton crane was used to lift a total weight of 260,000 pounds of plant modules, including 100 yards of soil, 56 planter boxes and 4,000 individual modules of live root plants. Further complicating the process was logistics. Crane availability and other logistical considerations in a busy office building meant that work could only be done on Saturdays and Sundays. This was carried out with a crew of eight working 12-hour days for two weekends in early May 2009.” Another reason for doing the crane work over weekends was so that the fire routes were not blocked during working hours. One other interesting challenge was the need to access window washing anchors set within the gravel, which was accomplished through Scott Torrance’s design. The landscape architect positioned the plantings “so that the lines for the window washers go between them. The gravel also keeps people on roof away from the glass.”
Mike Rowe added, though, that nobody follows their passion into “dirty jobs,” angling to work in waste water treatment or do window washing. “You do it because you’re hungry and you’ve found a job nobody else wants to do. And then you do it well, with a good attitude, with an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “The blind spot that we have right now, socially, is that we don’t look at entrepreneurs and associate them with dirt. We associate them with private jets. And that’s dangerous fiction.” He pointed to the ongoing effort to fund “shovel-fund” projects with federal stimulus funds as an example of why this “fiction” is so troublesome. “I hear Washington D.C. promising 3 million or 4 million ‘shovel-ready’ jobs and I think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great is ‘shovel-ready’ was something people aspired to?’” Rowe noted. “You’re trying to create jobs that have been systematically demeaned for two generations … It’s going to be a tough sell.”
One of Nick Clegg’s first challenges in office will be to avoid being crushed to death by a very large postbag. Yesterday he issued the country an invitation to nominate which laws we would like to be repealed. Nick Clegg is sure to receive a suggestion to relax the rule forbidding the use of ladders in many everyday applications where they used to be used. One Suffolk church was forced to spend £1,300 to have scaffolding erected to change a single lightbulb, a job previously performed without injury by a man with a ladder.
An Indonesian maid (pictured) who sprayed a window cleaning solution onto a plate before serving rice to her employer's mother was jailed for eight weeks on Thursday. Oktiana, 25, did this to get back at Madam Lee Neo Eng, 84, for reprimanding her for being slow in her work on April 14.
Oktiana, who was then preparing dinner, sprayed the cleaning solution before scooping some brown rice onto it in the kitchen. She then served it to Madam Lee. Assistant Public Prosecutor Asran Samad said she used the same plate to serve the victim a second time. Madam Lee smelt a suspicious detergent bleach-like odour from the rice just as she was about to eat. The maid eventually admitted to spraying the cleaning solution onto the plate before scooping the rice. She could have been jailed for up to six months and/or fined up to $2,500.
SC Johnson Clarifies: Windex Is Not for Dinner: Don't spray Windex on your food. Apparently, reality show pod-person Kim Kardashian sprays the window-cleaning product on her food, "so I won't eat it," according to a report in the National Enquirer that was widely circulated last week. In a statement on its Web site, titled "Windex is a Household Cleaner," SC Johnson doesn't mention Kardashian, but notes that the company is "aware of recent comments that spraying Windex on food can help reduce calorie intake. As one of the world's largest manufacturers of home-cleaning products, we want to make clear that SC Johnson does NOT recommend ingesting Windex or applying it to food. SC Johnson, a family company believes the best way to maintain a proper weight is to exercise regularly and eat a healthy balanced diet." Not all of the reaction on Twitter to Kardashian's Windex diet consisted of shock and snark. Some had questions or offered advice for other uses for the versatile product. @rickyhurtado wondered: "Does Windex really help for cold sores?" And @Belladonna18 advised: "If you have the urge to run naked through the streets...spray yourself with Windex to keep from streaking."
