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AIBU?

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Original poster

My cleaner chucked her cigarette butt into our hydrangea bush

165 replies

JuneM · 19/06/2024 18:51

Our cleaner does four hours a week - a couple of weeks ago I noticed a cigarette butt in a small gu pot on our back porch.. very usual as we don’t smoke! I thought it might be the gardeners, my husband mentioned he thought it was the cleaner.

this week, our cleaner who charges £18 per hour went out for a cigarette break, we have cctv at the back, and I saw that she chucked her cigarette butt into our hydrangea bush. I’m not happy about this at all. I think it’s disrespectful and disgusting that I now have to clean up my cleaners dirty cigarette butt.

I also often make her a tea or glass of water, in the past it has irritated me that she doesn’t actually put the cup in the dishwasher and I have to clean it up once she’s gone.

I know we need to raise this with her but what would you do.

AIBU?

OP posts:
SlothOnARope · 20/06/2024 01:15

ASighMadeOfStone · 19/06/2024 18:54

It should.
Sadly this will run for 28 pages with people saying OP shouldn't have a cleaner and maybe the cleaner's anxiety has caused her to lob her fag ends into the hydrangea.

Show quote history

No this is best comment and 1 reason why I still read mumsnet. Bookmarking and coming back in 28 pages to find out the back story.

Ilovelurchers · 20/06/2024 00:55

I assume you are posting on here to see if it is a reasonable thing to object to, not to see whether you should sack her or not?

(Sacking her without first just politely asking her not to do it would be awful, but I assume you realise that)

Like others have said, ask her to smoke off the property if it upsets you.

I think objecting to giving her a tea or a glass of water will make you sound inhumane tho in all honesty.

On a positive note, nice to hear you are paying her a decent wage. My mom has an excellent cleaner and I was shocked to learn recently most of her clients pay her £12 an hour! (My mom pays her more - we both consider £12 borderline exploitative for the service).

Blimpton · 20/06/2024 00:38

I’d ask her not to smoke on my property. If she quits than whatever, just get a new cleaner who isn’t disgusting and doesn’t drop litter.

Upupandaway10 · 20/06/2024 00:14

ForeveraBluebird · 19/06/2024 19:20

Tell her you’re a no smoking home Op, but your attitude to a glass or cup being left out after a drink is just over the top .

Yes

Original poster
JuneM · 20/06/2024 00:10

Thank you for all your feedback - it seems like a bit of a split.

the point about the drink (usually it’s a tea or coffee and/or water and she knows she can also help herself) is not that I make her one, it’s that she then leaves the cup somewhere in the house for me to find at a later time a dirty cup sitting on a clean chest of drawers etc that I then have to put in the dishwasher or wash up.

I’m a busy working mum with a baby so finding time to make myself a cup of tea can sometimes be tricky, so to me it is a small gesture, and I’m also not sat there twiddling my thumbs when she is cleaning and I don’t have time to do my own house cleaning to those that suggested that. .

I have a good relationship with my cleaner, she is a nice lady, thank you for the suggestions to buy her a gift (I did give her a Christmas bonus of £75), I do not mind her taking a short break in the middle of the clean, she is often speaking on her phone while cleaning also. For those that asked her cleaning is okay, her ironing is very good but we have had some problems recently with things not being very well cleaned (such as the toilet loo rim) and I do sometimes feel the need to finish up when she’s done so there is a bit of underlying frustration there too.

The main problem I have was her chucking a dirty cigarette in my garden and a few weeks prior leaving an ash tray for me to clean up when I don’t smoke and we would never allow it in our home. Hence why I even mentioned the dirty cups being left out for me to also clean up as it seems like there is a recurring theme.

This has confirmed I personally don’t feel comfortable with anyone smoking in my porch then chucking a cigarette littering my garden. We also have a small puppy so yes not safe for her also if she were to find that. So I will speak with her about the smoking on our property next week and mention it is a no smoking property.

Thank you again!

OP posts:
Cocacolo · 20/06/2024 00:07

Sidelining the thread a bit, but…18 ph! I get paid 11 something to look after young adults with learning disabilities. This means helping people who can’t move/communicate eat, go to the loo, socialize etc. Does seem a bit bonkers. Good job they are lovely.

knockyknees · 20/06/2024 00:03

AmelieTaylor · 19/06/2024 22:37

I wouldn't employ a cleaner who smoked, so it wouldn't be an issue, but if it was I'd just tell her she was no longer required.

Exactly!

She wouldn't have even made it into my house on her first visit, let alone been in a position to leave her filthy butt on my property. How vile.

Cocacolo · 20/06/2024 00:02

🤣🤣🤣agree!

FellowshipOfTheBing · 19/06/2024 23:50

I'm sorry OP but I think this wins the award for the most middle class thread title I've seen on Mumsnet for a long time!

My cleaner chucked her cigarette butt into our hydrangea bush
Anotherdayanotherhangover · 19/06/2024 23:27

Are you for real?

BluebellsareBlue · 19/06/2024 23:24

Imagine how happy she must be that you occasionally give her a glass of water. How kind of you, you sound like a delight, I'd probably pee in your flowers x

Noseybookworm · 19/06/2024 23:20

JuneM · 19/06/2024 18:58

For the record, we do not smoke. I do not have an ash tray and do not see why I should have to provide one which I would then need to clean out.

We also have a porch next to our baby’s nursery and often have the window open so I don’t like the fact she smokes on our property without asking.

If it bothers you this much, why not get another cleaner who doesn't smoke?

CountryMumof4 · 19/06/2024 23:19

For me, it would depend on the relationship you have with your cleaner. If she does a good job and you've no other concerns, just ask her to not smoke on your property. I suspect most people would happily agree to that and crack on. If you have other concerns, or you just think of her as 'staff', which your tone implies, just get rid and stipulate a non-smoking cleaner when you next recruit. Or do your own cleaning.

QueenCamilla · 19/06/2024 23:15

Triskeline · 19/06/2024 22:48

Well, my footman threw his crisp packet into my hostas.

My roofer threw his beer bottles... I'll stop there.

Ponderingwindow · 19/06/2024 23:12

She shouldn’t be smoking at your house. I would fire her.

saraclara · 19/06/2024 23:11

Mumsnet gets more precious by the minute.

I'm not a smoker. I don't like cigarette smoke. I don't like fag ends. But if my cleaner worked for four hours and took a cigarette break in the middle, I couldn't care less as long as she smoked outside.

As for a cigarette butt in the hydrangea bush being a fire risk... 😂

RosesAndHellebores · 19/06/2024 23:07

I don't think my cleaner smokes. However, she cleans our house, hangs wet washing. scrubs our bogs, does the ironing, empties the bins, has dealt with cat kill. I always offer her a coffee if I am in and will put it in the dishwasher.

If she smoked, she's welcome to leave a fag end behind, she's the sort of lady who'd wash her hands on the way in. My gardener would deal with the fag end as he deals with his own. I make him a cuppa too if I'm in.

Good staff/tradesmen are hard to find and we value them and look after them.

suki1964 · 19/06/2024 23:05

VanilleFraise · 19/06/2024 20:36

I'm always amazed that posters would rather dismiss someone from part of their livlihood than have a conversation about it.

And to the poster who thinks that it's acceptable to work for 4 hours in a physical job with neither break nor brew - that's absolutely disgraceful.

Unfortunately the law only says those that work 6 hours straight are entitled to a 20 mins break ( paid or unpaid - usually unpaid ) and so many employers work it so you do 4 hours - no break entitlement and these are in roles where drinks at your work station are not allowed ( factories, shops etc)

OP, whilst I also run a non smoking household, when I know I have smokers coming, I have a wee pot of sand in the garden for butts. No I dont like sorting it out so I say to them, smoke away, clean away after yourselves cos I aint.

Seriously I cannot believe this is such a big deal in your life that you are making a post about it

( thinking I need to drop 95% of my worries and concerns so I can get irrate about a non event )

Avatartar · 19/06/2024 23:03

Apart from anything else it’s a fire risk, plenty dead leaves get stuck under hydrangea bushes- litter lout she needs to take her fag ends with her

BasiliskStare · 19/06/2024 22:56

Honestly - if you are happy with all other aspects of her work I would tell her to have her cigarette on a break at the other end of the garden and put the end in a bag or something and throw it out with the rubbish.

Triskeline · 19/06/2024 22:48

Well, my footman threw his crisp packet into my hostas.

gingercat02 · 19/06/2024 22:39

I have no idea if my cleaner smokes. I'm almost always at work when she is here. She knows she can make a drink, have a biscuit, or whatever but she generally doesn't.
I would hope she would bin her fag ends if she did.

AmelieTaylor · 19/06/2024 22:37

I wouldn't employ a cleaner who smoked, so it wouldn't be an issue, but if it was I'd just tell her she was no longer required.

AmelieTaylor · 19/06/2024 22:33

Crispynoodle · 19/06/2024 19:12

Not at all worried because they are biodegradable! Buy an ash tray

Yeah in several hundred years!

Itoosurvive · 19/06/2024 22:33

I think everyone so far has failed to appreciate the most serious of perils from cigarettes being discarded in JuneM's hydrangea.

There is the very real risk of combustion and one can only hope that there exists a "Mr. JuneM" ready with his length of hose to spray JuneM's bush.