Is it unreasonable to expect my cleaner to stay the full 3 hours

[JudefromJersey]

I have a biggish house and have a cleaner once a week for 3 hours.
I tell my cleaner to start at the bottom and work her way up and stop after the 3 hours. Trouble is she always leaves 15-20 minutes before the 3 hours is up. She doesn't ask me, she just pops her head into my office, says bye and heads off. (she is usually late too and never says anything but that's by the by). She has very little English - she comes to me via a lady who employs a number of cleaners and I could speak to that woman but equally I don't want to get her in trouble as she is a good cleaner and they're hard to come by

Am I being unreasonable (with first world problems) to expect her to stay for the full 3 hours? Or should I suck it up?

I think you might be better off setting out what you want cleaned on a task based system, rather than getting somone to clean for a certain time. How will you feel if she says 'fine, no problem' and then just cleans the same stuff but slower?

That old chestnut. I paid for 2,5 - the last cleaner would disappear to the without the fail for 10 minutes after 2 hr 5 minutes. Then come out and say she’s finished. Of course she
Was more then welcome to use the loo but the pattern was the same without the fail. Basically two hours of work and then 10 minutes getting ready to leave in the loo.

Get a other cleaner. It won’t get better, once they start leaving early that’s it.

I’m a cleaner of course she should for the full 3 hours.

If I ever have to leave even 5 minutes early I make it up the following week

I pay me cleaner a set price for the job. If she does it quickly so be it. I don't care as long as she does it well. Its unfair to penalise efficiency in my opinion.

I used to have a cleaner who stayed the full 3 hours. She was so slow the work was never finished properly, in fact some rooms were barely touched (it was a 3 bed house with one bathroom so not huge) I don't time my current cleaner. We agreed a set price. She does the job. She does it properly. That's good enough for me

I would often have said ' if you have time at the end could you do such and such?'

But to be honest I agree, if people start leaving early consistently, then time to get someone else.

My mum had the same cleaners as me, and when they tried it on her she looked at her watch and said 'but you haven't finished yet.' I wish I had been as comfortable with that. I think it is such a difficult situation to deal with, having someone in your house each week.

My cleaner always stays the full 3 hours, she's always spot on time. Of course you should expect to get what you pay for.

Years ago with a previous cleaner I once came home from work unexpectedly and found her with her feet up and a cuppa in front of daytime telly. Needless to say I found someone else very soon afterwards.

Is she leaving a clean house?

I mean, yes the house bit she does is clean but she will usually only have done 2 of the bathrooms. So theoretically she could do one more bathroom in that time. (Fully aware that these are first world problems and I could just clean my own loo 😳)

How can she justify leaving early if only 2 out of 3 bathrooms are cleaned?!

She possibly thinks she wouldn’t get it finished on time.

Sounds like I’m not being too unreasonable. To those that mentioned I should give her set tasks, I didn’t want to set too much and seem like I was expecting too much.

If you are basically employing her via an agency, then you are paying the agency to manage her. I would send a message to the woman you employ her through and say 'XXX does a great job, but I've been noticing the timekeeping is sliding - she normally leaves 20 minutes early from the 3 hour job and not all bathrooms are done. Please could you ask her to make sure she is here for the full 3 hours?'

Is her English good enough to understand you saying she's not done the full 3 hours? If so, I would definitely take it up with the cleaner herself first. If her English isn't sufficient to understand, or you have a word with her and on the next visit, she leaves early once again, I would, definitely, speak to the agency who employ her.

Leaving 20 minutes early from a three hour job isn't acceptable.

for goodness' sake, stop being so feeble. She is late and leaves early. Speak to the person you pay for the service and get it sorted. If she gets into trouble that is not your fault. Tell the woman you pay that you don't want to lose her as she is a good cleaner, you just want her to do the hours specified

I think it muddies the water to set tasks. If you say three hours then that is much easier for both parties to understand.

You would think!

I think you should say to her next time before she starts that you are a bit confused as you thought she was working for three hours and then say that she only did 2.5 or whatever it was last time.

You could either be assertive or play the confused card! Then let her speak and explain! Should be interesting.

Depending on what she says you then say, oh well could we be clear that I want three hours of cleaning and I am paying X amount for that? Big smile.

Hopefully that will sort it. But you will have to be brave. (You can still be friendly and pleasant.)

She's a CF. I wonder if you telling her to start at the bottom of the house and stop after 3 hours gives her the opportunity in her world to leave some places uncleaned, even though she's not doing the full 3 hours? She couldn't do that in other employment.

I think I would start afresh with a new cleaner and state what you need doing, so all the bathrooms, living room, kitchen, main bedrooms etc then the rest on a rota if she doesn't have time to finish.

I don't think it's acceptable to leave early. My cleaner used to do this - also a language issue as my Chinese is not fantastic. she told me she had to leave early to go to another job she had taken on. I gave her a choice - work for three hours and I pay for three or go to the job and leave after 2.5 and I would pay for 2.5. She chose to stay for three. I didn't mind her occasionally leaving early to go to a meeting at her daughter's school or similar (and paid for the full time) but she was starting to take the piss.
I would speak to your cleaner first and clarify start and finish times and if the situation persists, speak to the agency.

I also prefer to ask my cleaner to do as much as she can of what she can see needs doing in the hours I pay her for - surely, you clean in between times, so the same jobs aren't going to need doing with the same thoroughness every week?

She tried leaving when she thought she'd finished her tasks once or twice, so I started pre-empting her by looking at my watch and saying 'if you've got any time left over [knowing damn well she had], could you do XYZ?'. Seemed to get the message across.

Surely this is the benefit of an agency? You tell them that you're paying for 3 hours and to have your whole house cleaned. However, one bathroom is NOT being cleaned AND the cleaner is leaving early. Please can they address this.

Similarly, if she was staying for 3 hours and not cleaning one bathroom, you'd have to discuss with the agency whether or not you need to increase the amount of time she spends.

I don't think it's an issue if they've done all the cleaning required. I would never dream of worrying about them popping off once they'd finished!

Thanks all for the advice. Very helpful to get some objective perspective.
She is coming tomorrow and I'm going to watch her time keeping and ask that if she has time at the end, she can sweep the steps outside or something.
If she still leaves early, I might say something to the agency. I am awful at confrontation.

These are people and work at different speeds. When I worked as a cleaner I did a good job and was paid for the job - not the time.

If your cleaner isn't doing everything then that is a separate matter.

@JudefromJersey how did you get on today?

Per a previous poster, I am feeble! She arrived 8.08 left at 10.52. I said nothing. I am my own worst enemy. To those who mention being paid for a job rather than time taken, the problem is that my house is quite big. Would probably take the best part of 5 hours and that is cleaning only, no tidying/ironing/internal cupboards & fridge etc. So my rationale is that I pay for 3 hours and for her to get as much done in that time. I’d prefer she slowed down and stayed the full 3 hours, I pay her via the agency lady by the hour so do feel that it’s not that unreasonable to expect her to stay the 3 hours. I don’t mind that she arrives late per se, as long as she stays a full 3 hours.
As they’d say over in AIBU, I need to put my big girls pants on and speak to her or the agency.
There’s a level of vulnerability when someone is in your home, I suppose. Otherwise I’d have said something ages ago.

It might be easier to text the agency if that is how you communicate. Something along the lines of 'XX please could you clarify with YY that she is supposed to be here for 3 hours? She has left about 20 minutes early each week for the last couple of months. Many thanks, Jude'

Yes I think that’s what I’ll do. I’m waiting for another week in order to say it’s happened for 5 weeks.
Thank you.