You Thought I Was Just a Housekeeper

By Kaitlyn cole 

You thought I was just a housekeeper.

You saw clean floors, sanitized rooms, empty trash cans, and stocked supplies. You probably never thought about the person behind those things—or what it takes to keep a hospital running from behind the scenes.

This isn’t a news article. It isn’t an investigation. It isn’t meant to attack anyone.

This is simply my experience. My view as a critic. 

When I accepted a housekeeping position at Samaritan Medical Center, I walked in with optimism. I wanted to work hard, help people, and be part of something that truly mattered. In the beginning, the environment felt welcoming, and I believed I had found a place where my work would make a difference.

Over time, that feeling changed.

The workload continued to grow. More responsibilities were added while staffing remained stretched thin. There were days when it felt like one person was expected to do the work of four or five housekeepers. No matter how hard I worked or how fast I moved, there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to complete every task to the standard I believed patients deserved.

Hospital cleanliness matters. It affects patient comfort, staff morale, and public confidence. From my perspective, when employees are consistently overworked and departments remain understaffed, maintaining that standard becomes increasingly difficult—not because people don’t care, but because there simply aren’t enough hands to do the work.

The job itself was physically demanding. Pushing heavy supply carts between buildings through snow, sleet, rain, freezing temperatures, or the heat of summer became part of everyday life. Every shift demanded constant movement, heavy lifting, and the expectation to keep going regardless of the conditions outside or inside. 

I accepted a part-time position, yet I often worked what felt like full-time hours. When I asked for my schedule to better reflect my part-time status since I wasn’t receiving full-time benefits, nothing changed. I also spoke with my supervisor about the workload on my assigned floor because I genuinely believed it was too much for one person to complete properly during a single shift. I left those conversations feeling unheard.

One of the hardest parts wasn’t the physical labor.

It was the feeling that hard work wasn’t always valued.

I often finished my own assignments before looking for coworkers who needed help. Many times, helping someone else meant taking on part of their workload as well. Eventually, it began to feel as though doing more simply resulted in being expected to do even more. The extra effort rarely came with recognition or appreciation.

Unfortunately, some of the hardest workers there were still partaking in recreational activities during work hours and for those who don’t really understand what that might mean this is what it means showing up on your work shift, drunk or still drunk from the night before smoking weed pens throughout your whole shift or possibly just overall being a fucked up individual comments made that shouldn’t be made in front of certain people thoughts of racism that should not be made during work hours or at all jokes and fun is all good at work until it mentally and physically fucks up a person‘s life. I completely think there should be some look into a housekeeping department whether it’s the hospital, a hotel or such and as a real life critic and an undercover for job sites, I believe there are good places still out there. I hope that you take what I say and Help turn this place around patient’s life matter. Heart values is what they call it and at least 70% of what I seen was not what they stand for.

Working in housekeeping gave me a perspective most people never see. It showed me how much hospitals depend on employees whose work often goes unnoticed. It also showed me how quickly burnout can happen when expectations continue to increase without the staffing or support needed to meet them.

I still believe housekeeping is one of the most important departments in any hospital. Cleanliness protects patients, supports healthcare workers, and creates an environment where healing can happen. The people doing this work deserve realistic workloads, proper staffing, and the respect that comes with carrying such an important responsibility.

This isn’t about bitterness.

It’s about honesty.

Sometimes the people working the hardest are the ones nobody notices.

Until now.

You thought I was just a housekeeper.

Maybe now you’ll remember the people behind the clean hallways, the sanitized patient rooms, and the quiet work that makes a hospital function every single day.

⸻

Written by Kaitlyn cole