Office and commercial cleaning jobs

Office cleaning is the volume end of the industry and the easiest way in. Most roles are part-time shifts either side of office hours, typically 5am to 8am or 6pm to 9pm, cleaning desks, floors, kitchens and washrooms to a set specification. The employer is usually a facilities management or contract cleaning company rather than the business whose office you clean: names like Mitie, OCS and ISS hold thousands of UK contracts between them.

The short-shift structure is why so many people pair office cleaning with another job, childcare or study. It also makes multi-site work common, where you cover two or three buildings a night for the same supervisor. Progression is real: team leader, mobile supervisor and area manager roles are nearly always filled from the cleaning staff who turned up reliably.

Typical shifts

5-8am and 6-9pm, Mon-Fri

Contract holders

FM firms: Mitie, OCS, ISS and others

Legal pay floor (21+)

£12.71/hour

Progression

Team leader → supervisor → area manager