My name is Uriah Dorian. I was a supervisor in training at Seattle Commercial Cleaners from 11/01/2024 until 12/15/2024. This was my experience working for Seattle Commercial Cleaners.
I was working with a team tasked with cleaning the high windows at Seattle Airport in one of the concourses using a scissor lift on December 11. I was a supervisor in training for Seattle Commercial Cleaners where I had been working for two months.
As we worked that morning, we frequently encountered people on our way, and I made it a point to politely ask them to move. Most complied without issue, even those who were asleep.
On that night around 3 a.m. we came across two men sleeping near a window. My trainer had taken a co-worker to clean a different area and so it was just Francisco and I. We approached the sleeping men, and I asked them to please move along but while one man complied and was nice like most people, the other just ignored me. Frustration began to set in, so I pulled out my phone and threatened to call airport security, hoping this would prompt him to get up.
At that moment, Francisco, a brand new my crew member, tried to assist by raising his voice to ask the man to move one more time. Francisco was a brand-new employee (three days) and he later told me that he thought that the police would take the man to jail, and he wanted to prevent that. However, his attempt backfired when out of nowhere, the man shot up and accused Francisco of kicking him. I was startled by this false accusation and aggressive behavior but stayed composed.
Things escalated quickly as the man became verbally aggressive. His reaction seemed extreme for simply being woken up, yet I recalled hearing from a colleague that some individuals could react poorly when disturbed from sleep. Therefore, I assumed that this happened all the time.
As his hostility intensified, he told Francisco that he was going to kick his ass. He also challenged Francisco to step outside for a fight. I then de-escalated this situation by making Francisco get back to work. It seemed to work as the man packed his belongings and moved but he was neve far away for the rest of the morning.
It was essential for us to stay focused on our work and not let this incident derail our progress for the night. I was under a lot of pressure to get the work done since we had to finish the lift work that day. The angry man continued to harass us throughout the night and although unsettling, maintaining professionalism was how I believed I should be handling such an unexpected challenge.
At one point in the evening, my trainer named Molina started working in the lift with me. The angry man crossed our barrier and took pictures of us and yelled at us. Molina asked me what happened, and I told Molina that he was mad that we woke him up. Molina then told me that people sometimes get upset from being woken up. Since he didn’t instruct me to file a report and since he seemed to minimize the situation, I let it go and didn’t follow up.
The following Tuesday I was informed that the angry man had filed a complaint and that the police were investigating the incident. I was told by Patrice (my supervisor) that it was against company policy to wake sleeping passengers. However, I never read or was told about that policy during my employment with the company. On the contrary, I was trained to wake people up that were in the way of our progress.
I have obtained recordings of two current and long-time employees that agreed to be recorded while being questioned about the standard company practice of waking sleeping passengers. You can view that here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/_j1Hl_0Ritc?feature=share