BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporters Advertisement
No job should be too small for the city executives who run Chicago's airports, the city's aviation boss declared Tuesday as he handed his top deputies mops and gloves and told them to clean O'Hare Airport's toilets for a day.
"We know people's impressions of our facilities and of our city are partly driven by having a clean restroom," Aviation Commissioner John Roberson said. "The only way you can really understand the importance of keeping our restrooms clean is going out and getting your hands dirty. Clean it yourself. Work a shift."
Beginning this week, anyone with an assistant commissioner title or above will spend an eight-hour shift mopping bathroom floors, emptying trash cans, washing sinks and cleaning toilets. Many of the approximately 20 executives on the hook, including Roberson, make more than $100,000 a year.
And no, they can't work an overnight shift when traffic is low.
Mayor Daley made a stink about grungy O'Hare bathrooms last month while announcing plans to privatize the jobs of the airport's 293 custodians. So, before making the custodians walk the plank, the bosses will have to swab the deck.
It's not the first roll-up-the-sleeves moment for Roberson, who took the post earlier this year. When he was Daley's sewers commissioner, he jumped into a sewer to better understand the job.
But he credits the airport cleaning idea to his top deputy, Pat Harney, and to Illinois Tollway Executive Director Jack Hartman, who ordered 80 managers to work a shift in a toll booth last year.
Airport custodian Lue Cooks, a six-year veteran, watched Tuesday as an assistant commissioner mopped a floor. Cooks even lent some advice -- clean the sinks first when the stalls are crowded.
"It's great. They're getting a sense of what we do in these washrooms," Cooks said. "It's not easy."
Another custodian wasn't sure what to make of his new colleagues. But he insisted the bathrooms aren't so bad -- and that travelers even slip him tips sometimes because they're impressed.
A men's room near the United Airlines baggage claim must not have been on his rounds.
"It stinks in there," grumbled a Chicago man returning from California. "It's ridiculous. How many people come through this airport? And this is the impression they have of Chicago?"
But some travelers, including Erik Helland, 40, from Gurnee, embraced the executive mop idea.
"I think in any job, it pays to know what's going on everywhere -- from the ground up," he said.
Now if only some top airline CEO's would take the hint and try working as a ramp worker or check in agent for a day, bet they wont be so quick to criticise and cut jobs then
