Stories from our university’s environmental sanitation workers

Hello, students of SeoulTech!



 I'm reporter Kim Minju of The SeoulTech. In this issue, The SeoulTech covered our university’s environmental sanitation workers. Let’s take a deeper look at their stories and grievances

Q1. Please introduce yourself.

A: I'm Hyunha Jin, vice branch manager of Korean University Workers' Union at SeoulTech. I belong to the general affairs department and I am in charge of cleaning SeoulTech.

Q2. Is SeoulTech the first university you worked for?

A: Yes, I joined SeoulTech for the first time in 2014. When I first came here, I used rubber gloves all day long, so I got eczema and a dust allergy because I inhaled a lot of dust. It was a hard time.

Q3. Seoultech recently held the Torchlight Festival, and I think there is a lot more trash than usual. How was your work today?

A: There was a lot of trash on campus today because there are many young students.Today, I went to work an hour early to collect all the waste from the athletic fields

Q4. Which season is the best for your work and what is the worst season?

A: Spring is the easiest season to work in. In summer, there is no air conditioning in the bathrooms or hallways, so I sweat a lot,which makes my eyes hurt. In autumn, SeoulTech is forested, so it is very difficult to work in the morning when you sweep and gather leaves. In winter we are in charge of cleaning the footpaths to prevent people from slipping.

Q5. You seem to have quite a lot of work. What's your daily routine?

A: According to the manual, work starts at 7 o'clock when we clean the entire garbage separation at the garbage collection center. After that, each of us goes to our own work area and cleans it by 9:30 AM. We have a 30-minute break, but if we have a lot of work, we sometimes skip our break. We also check our respective areas at 10, 1, and 3 o'clock, a total of 4 times per day.

Q6: If there is a lot of work, there is no break time. Can the university solve this problem by hiring more workers?

No, it's because of staffing and manpower costs. It is said that it is difficult to recruit more people due to the difficulty of school finances because student tuition fees have not increased for some time.

Q7. What do you think about the quality of being an on-campus on-campus sanitation worker?

A: Since sanitation workers are service personnel, We want to perform our jobs with the mindset of being kind to students and professors. Also, because we work closely together, the spirit of cooperation and fellowship seem to be very important. This is because if one person is tired while working together, we can help that person.

Q8. What is the aspect of your job that you are most careful about?

A: I do my best when it comes to the work areas that are entrusted to me.. I have not had a single complaint in about 10 years.

Q9.What are the most difficult places to manage?

A: 1. Davinci Hall. It's an art college building, so it's never ending because students work on their art projects all day long.

2. Eoui Hall. It is used as a liberal arts building, so garbage keeps piling up even on weekends.

3. Central Library Annex. It's a bit difficult because there are a lot of students during the exam period.Also, some larger buildings such as Techno Cube, Frontier Hall require a lot of cleaning.

Q10. What about your work is hardest for you?

A: Sometimes, trash piles up so high that I can't even see the trash can. If I say it's too hard at this time, senior employees will help me.

Q11. How about a rewarding moment?

A: Very many – when graduating students bring me letters, coffee, and bread to thank me.

Q12. What do you want to say to students and what do you want to ask them?

A: I hope the students enjoy festivals and MT, and maintain good relations with the faculty. I also want to see the students study hard and develop their fields so that the status of SeoulTech can be raised.

 What I would like to ask students to do is to recycle well. Also, I would like you to throw cigarette butts away in the ashtray instead of throwing them on the ground. There is a risk of fire, and if you drop them on the veranda of the school and throw them out of sight, other managers will have to go up there and clean them up. I think this is a little difficult.

 When The SeoulTech talked to the sanitation workers about subjects students were curious about, we were very grateful to see workers working with great responsibility and mission to the school environment.

 Why don't you become a student at SeoulTech who thinks positively about the environment with the mindset of 'Let's recycle properly first'? Also, it would be nice to say thank you if you encounter the sanitation workers who take such good care of our school's environment.