Housekeeper playing music- aibu?

I assumed you meant she was playing it in your house! You are being ridiculous I assume this is a wind up?

I think I was very much in the pain/over stimulated phase when I posted. I also wasn't planning to disclose as much information as I did.

I have read the F*cking thread. This is my opinion. I think she was unreasonable. I have read her unfortunate position poor love. She's said she's gonna apologise.

Thank God for that.

I'm genuinely not sure how else to say it, but £27 per hour plus free (and very nice) accommodation is a very generous package.

You keep saying it's not but you're not willing to say what you think she should be getting paid. You also can't see that it's twice the national minimum wage though it probably works out more than that because she has no bills to pay.

We're also going to set up some private health/dental insurance for her because she's bloody brilliant and deserves to have access to quality care.

And if she wanted to leave, she'd still be welcome to live in the cottage.

Good. But honestly, why on earth didn't you say this at the beginning then? All the answers here would have had a totally different context and tone.

Rtft 🙄🙄

Good,

She had it playing for a couple of minutes while she was gathering her things.

I think she should have turned it off as soon as she stopped the car.

I'm not troll hunting or posting this as a reverse.

I'm also not posh.

I have very severe migraines and had surgery on my ears recently that's left me extremely sensitive to noise. Not all noise, but certain pitches are agony.

I think I might have been a bitch to her and she didn't deserve it. I'll apologize and explain why I snapped at her.

You're definitely underpaid!

I was about to comment about @pinck's post as to whether or not the definition of 'unskilled' is different in the States. Beat me to it!

Lol, so let me get this straight, y'all are happily defending someone for berating her housekeeper over playing FOUR MINUTES of music in her own car but I'm apparently the unreasonable one for calling it out and now I must be drunk? Yeah, okay, the lack of self-awareness here is genuinely astounding.

Nope, wrong again. I’m a woman. All grown up and everything.

In a previous post you said your parents paid $35-50 dollars to their cleaners 2 decades ago, and that you pay more than that now. So let’s say that’s $60 an hour. That converts to around £45/hr and, in the case of the OP’s full time housekeeper, an annual gross income of nearly £94K, plus considerable benefits in kind. I promise you, in this part of the UK that figure is at least 2-3 times the going rate, depending on the value of the accommodation she is provided with.

I’m not arguing with you. I’m telling you. The housekeeper’s compensation is very fair.

I think perhaps in the US the term unskilled labour has become outdated, but in the UK we still use it to describe work that requires no formal education, qualifications or long term training. It’s not meant as a disparaging term, just a factual description.

I say again, knowing what a particular vet earns does not give you full insight into the overall structure of the profession. There are countless and complicated different career routes that can be taken. You likely only have experience of a single specific type given your area of interest. It’s pretty clear that my career path has been a revelation to you but it’s a fairly common one in the equine world. But all that really is irrelevant.

That's def unreasonable of you. I was expecting you complaining of hours of noise while she was cleaning not a couple of minutes. Housekeepers are hard to come by. Give her a break or she'll go elsewhere!

Thanks! Although I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall 😅

Yes, KY. Great experience!

She had it playing for a couple of minutes while she was gathering her things.

I think she should have turned it off as soon as she stopped the car.

@Sealedbidswoes You can join our club!

Did you work in Kentucky?

She had it playing for a couple of minutes while she was gathering her things.

I think she should have turned it off as soon as she stopped the car.

Right, so you're a man. Not sure how I was supposed to know that, but thanks for clarifying.

And I never said the OP should pay her housekeeper three times the local rate, nor did I suggest that cleaners should earn the same as veterinarians. Those are arguments you've invented yourself. What I do question is whether someone performing a wide range of household duties including laundry, grocery assistance, companionship, and driving, should be compensated accordingly. That's not quite the same as suggesting every cleaner deserves a six-figure salary, is it?

And yes, like I said I've been heavily involved in conformation and breeding circles for almost two decades and people involved in dogs at that level tend to work closely with veterinarians and become pretty familiar with the profession, including what vets earn. I never claimed that makes me a veterinarian, but pretending I have absolutely no knowledge of the industry is ridiculous. Apparently your personal experience is perfectly valid while mine is automatically irrelevant. Funny how that works.

As for the generational wealth comment, thank you, I suppose? You're the one who brought up knowing wealthy people who employ household staff as though that somehow settled the argument. I simply pointed out that I'm familiar with wealthy households myself. You're welcome to think that's nothing to boast about, but I wasn't asking for your approval.

And no, I don't have communist notions simply because I believe people performing domestic labor deserve reasonable compensation. Cleaning may not require a university degree, but that doesn't mean it requires no skill, effort, or experience. The fact that you've somehow turned that into a debate about communism is genuinely hilarious.

Finally, I already acknowledged that I didn't initially understand the OP's circumstances and apologized to her. I've said repeatedly that yelling at an employee was inappropriate, and I still believe that. What I find remarkable is how determined you are to keep arguing with me while simultaneously insisting that I'm the one who needs to retreat.

You've written an extraordinary amount about someone you apparently consider completely clueless. At this point, I think you've made your feelings abundantly clear. HTH.

And don't worry, I'm out ... ✌️