Hurrah For The Secret Army

Behind the scenes there’s an underground army of workers. After you’ve closed your laptop and are on your journey home the cleaners are scrub the coffee ring on your workstation and vacuum the accident you had with a bowl of cereal earlier in the day. When you arrive at your workstation the next day passing a display of office plants there are no traces of the previous day. Your bin is empty and the communal kitchen is gleaming. Unless you are in the habit of burning the midnight oil, you’ve probably never seen these people.

If you work in an office block or restaurant there’s likely to be a bird control technician on the roof installing bird spikes or AviGo to protect workers and customers from slipping on bird guano. By the bins you might spot rodent bait stations to keep any rat infestations in check, but perhaps you’ve never noticed the guy who turns up in his van and makes all the nastiness go away.

At Rentokil Initial we employ over 60,000 service support colleagues across the globe but there are many, many more workers who deserve recognition – three million of them in the UK alone, contributing 10% of GDP for Britain. These people work hard to keep our country clean and take pride in their work. Without them our streets, work places and public transport would be a very unpleasant place.

To recognise service support staff across the UK we are running a photography competition. Take a photograph of a support worker – perhaps your cleaner or courier, it doesn’t have to be a Rentokil Initial employee and upload it to the Essential Britain Flickr page. Top portrait photographer Matthew Lloyd will be judging the entries and will select one lucky winner of a Canon 5d Mark II plus the chance to shadow him on a photo-shoot.

For inspiration please visit www.rentokil-initial.com/who-we-are/our-people/.