Laundry worker
Laundry workers operate washing machines, steamers and dryers to clean items like clothes, bed linen, towels and uniforms.
Typical Salary
£16,500 – £22,000
per year
Working Hours
39–41
hours per week
Day-to-day tasks
As a laundry worker, you could:
- sort laundry according to fabric, colour and cleaning process
- tag items with bar codes or computer chips for identification
- treat heavily stained items before cleaning
- set machine controls, add cleaning agents and wash or steam laundry
- check quality before finishing items by drying, pressing and folding
- deal with customer payments, give cleaning advice and prepare laundry for deliveries
Skills needed
- customer service skills
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to work well with others
- to be flexible and open to change
- the ability to use your initiative
- excellent verbal communication skills
- the ability to organise your time and workload
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through:
- an apprenticeship
- applying directly
Career progression
With experience you could become a laundry service supervisor or manager.
In a dry cleaning shop, you could be promoted to store manager. If your shop is part of a chain, you could take on responsibility for several shops in an area or region.
You could also start your own laundry business.