Rita worked as a cleaner in a big office in the city. Every morning, she arrived before the sun came up and started her long day of work. The rooms in the building were quiet at that time, and the air was still pleasantly cool. She cleaned the desks, the floors, and the kitchen, and when she had finished doing that, she emptied the bins and washed all the cups that people left behind.
When the workers came in, everything was always bright and tidy — but nobody thanked her. They talked to each other and ignored her. They left food on the tables, dropped paper on the floor, and never said hello. Occasionally they laughed when she worked. “You missed a spot,” one man said one day. Rita smiled, but she felt hurt inside.
One morning, after a night of heavy rain, the office looked terrible. Footprints covered the floor. Coffee had spilt across a desk. The kitchen was dirty, with plates and cups everywhere. Rita looked around and felt tired. She had cleaned this office for years, and nothing ever changed.
So that morning, she made a choice. She put her cleaning things away and sat down for a few minutes. Then she went home early.
The next day, the office looked the same as before — messy and dirty. The workers came in and stopped at the door.
“What happened?” one woman asked.
“Where’s Rita?” said another.
The place smelt bad. The tables were sticky. The bins were full. Nobody wanted to sit down or make coffee. People started to complain. “This is awful,” one man said. “How can we work like this?”
They had never seen the office dirty before. Now they realised how much work Rita did every single day.
When Rita came in later, everyone turned to look at her. She stood by the door with her cleaning trolley and smiled.
“Looks like you’ve had a busy morning,” she said quietly.
The manager walked over to her. “Rita,” he said, “we’re sorry. We didn’t see how much you do for us.”
Rita nodded. “It’s all right,” she said. “Maybe now you do.”
That evening, some of the workers helped her clean. They picked up papers, washed the cups, and wiped the tables. They saw how hard it was to make everything clean again.
After that day, things were different. The workers tried to keep their desks tidy. They said hello when Rita arrived. Sometimes, they even thanked her.
Rita still worked early and left late, but she felt better. Now people saw her — really saw her — and she smiled as she worked.
📒 Key vocabulary
- cleaner – a person whose job is to clean places
- bin – a container for rubbish
- tidy – clean and organised
- ignore (ignore, ignored, ignored) – not pay attention to someone
- miss (miss, missed, missed) – not notice or reach something
- spill (spill, spilt, spilt) – make liquid fall or run out by mistake
- sticky – not clean and a little wet, so things stay on it
- trolley – a small cart used to carry cleaning tools
- wipe (wipe, wiped, wiped) – rub with a cloth to make clean
🤔 Comprehension quiz
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