Cleaner always on phone

[Chesscat]

We have had our cleaner for about a year.

She was great but has started to spend about 50% of her time on the phone (not hands free) and she now doesn't finish all the things she used to get done.

Do you think this is unreasonable? I find it very annoying as am at home all the time so am very aware that things aren't getting finished because of the calls. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks :)

[wowfudge]

Do you have to ask? Of course it is! I suggest you tell her how good she is at cleaning, but you have noticed that now she is spending so much time on the phone without a hands free kit her productivity has gone down and she isn't getting everything done like she used to and you're not happy paying the same money for an incomplete job as it hasn't been just a one off. Ask her to either use a hands free kit or not make calls while she's at your house. If she refuses then give her the elbow.

You really have to nip things like this in the bud or she thinks it's acceptable and that you clearly don't mind as you are still paying her the same money.

[Chesscat]

This is massively helpful, thanks so much. I find it difficult to be assertive but this has given me the confidence to know how to approach this.

[bexcee8]

I run a cleaning company and one of my rules is no personal calls whilst at a clients house. It's rude and counterproductive as you've found. Even wearing a hands free isn't acceptable as you're still not giving the clean your 100% attention.
You need to speak to her or the agent if you use one.

[Chesscat]

Thanks so much. This is clearly your field of expertise so good to know that it's not just me being fussy.

[wowfudge]

I totally agree with bexcee8, I think it's appallingly rude and I would have said something the second time it happened (on the basis that the first time might have been an emergency/one-off). Hopefully the strategy of praise followed by issue that needs dealing with will work. Good luck OP.

[DanglyEarOrnaments]

We have a cleaning company and like bexcee we don't allow our staff to use the phone whilst in clients homes, whether the client is home or not.

I also ask our employees not to chat too much to each other or to the homeowners if they happen to be home since chatting is a huge distraction and details can be easily missed if they are not focussed on their work.

[feelthebenefit]

I clean, and if I used my phone for anything other than an emergency while I was working id expect to be sacked. Just wrong.

[e1y1]

Yes it's wrong. All good suggestions above, it can be hard to be assertive, but you aren't telling her anything she should not expect.

Nowhere else in the world of employment allows you to make non emergency personal calls whilst on paid time. Actually I used to work for a very large mobile phone company, and we weren't even allowed our mobiles on our desks.