Would this annoy you if a cleaner did this?

[Movinghouseatlast]

I have a fairly new cleaner.

I work at home and every single time I come into the house to get something she is sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich or a packet of crisps or drinking coffee. She continues to sit there while I go up to where I store my equipment and come back with it- so 15 minutes twice today.

She does 4 hours and I ask her to do the kitchen, dining room, sitting room, hallway and two bathrooms. Previous cleaners have taken 4 hours to do this.

I have said to her that if she has extra time when she's finished she can do the porch or one of the bedrooms but she never 'has time'.

I think she is being really disrespectful by sitting eating and on her phone but maybe I'm wrong? We've all skived at work at some point but she's being a bit blatant about it. She does clean the rooms I've asked her to do though though often misses bits and I have to tell her the next time.

I also don't want to lose her as cleaners are very difficult to find in my area. But I feel she's walking all over me!

Exactly. I used to clean and I never took a break on paid time. I don't have a cleaner myself because they all take the piss in some way, either not doing all their time, not cleaning well enough, not turning up some weeks, but they all want at least £20/hour round here which means I want top level cleaning and efficiency! So I do it myself.

Not ‘all’ of us take the piss.
I work my butt of for my clients, I don’t cancel. I don’t cut corners. I don’t skim off time.

I wish you were in my town! Honestly the ones round here have been a nightmare, they just don't clean to a good standard. I should have been clearer in my post, I used to be a cleaner myself and I was good so I do know it's not all of them but round here it does seem to be at the moment unfortunately.

Reasonable to take a short break within 4 hours - but not more than 10 minutes.
our cleaner takes 3 hours for a 5 bed house at £15 per hour. She doesn’t reaularly have a break .
Your cleaner is taking the piss.

Mine is amazing by the way !

Having a cup of tea or a drink for ten minutes is fine, though none of my cleaners ever did! Taking two 15 minute breaks is OTT. If she worked for a company she wouldn't be entitled to any working only four hours.

Where are you?

I pay £100 for 4 hours - but 4 cleaners come at the same time and blitz it in one hour - before they start they all help themselves to coffee from my coffee machine and sometimes they have been known to make themselves bagels taken from my cupboard!!! I am slightly appalled but to be honest it's so hard to find good cleaners that I just suck it up and pretend not to notice. I would have a problem with it if they didn't do a good job though....sounds like you are not happy with the actual cleaning and that's why the "break" is so annoying...

She's taking the mick. I pay £17.50 per hour and in 3 hours, my wonderful cleaner does 2 bedrooms, bathroom, very large kitchen diner and living room to a high standard. No breaks, but I make her coffees and biscuits. I'm lucky to have her.

I’m a cleaner - if a job is 4 hours or less I do not take any breaks ! If it’s more then I do take a break but only 15 mins if it’s 5 hours and 30 mins if it’s 6 hours and that doesn’t come out of my cleaning time it’s a stop the clock thing !

Unless she’s diabetic she should be able to eat before and after and be fine

Oxfordshire/Berkshire area. You?

I’ve had some really mixed experiences. I was paying one for 3 hours who I binned off after realising she was doing 1h30 and the house was shit. I had another who was amazing when it was her for 3 hours- really brilliant but she started bringing along a friend or another random person doing 1h30 and the job was always rubbish as the second person wasn’t as good and they’d be chatting a lot and I didn’t like strangers in the home

. I had one cleaner who would do 3 hours to the dot but was slower and another would whizz around like a demon and generally so 2h30. Both were good and probably cleaned to the same standard but approached things quite differently.

Now I can’t be bothered with managing it. I’d rather do it myself at this point as a lot of the effort is actually tidying- often feels like the cleaning is the easier bit.

I would suggest you reset your focus from a time based perspective to a task based perspective - i.e. you pay the cleaner to get certain tasks done and as long as they are done to the required standard, it doesn't matter whether she takes 3 hrs or 4 hrs.

She would no longer be my cleaner!

We have had two wonderful cleaners who did 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big kitchen, sitting room. Downstairs loo, dining room, study and hall/stairs and landing in 4 hours to a very high standard.each of them said 4 hours was adequate and neither took a formal break. I think you need a new cleaner!

Ours does three hours and doesn't have a break. But if she did four or more we would want her to take a paid 15 break. Simply as cleaning for four plus hours without a break is pretty tiring.
We are not being tight, we offered her more hours but she declined.
I think you should reduce it to three, then she shouldn't be needing or having any break. If the break was unpaid and she just wants somewhere to eat her lunch, would that be more acceptable? Probably not.

a coffee break maybe but I wouldnt be having her bringing food into the house

I pay £16 an hour in central London. 5 bedroom house with three bathrooms and two reception rooms over three floors, for 4 hours. Includes gentle mop of all floors. Cleaners we've had usually do in a little over 3 hours, so I upped to 4 hours and allows time for some extra irregular cleaning / clothes folding / tidying I didn't manage before arrival. The speed at which our current and previous cleaner goes is just incredibly impressive. They don't really want to chat even if I try, and are on the move from the moment they enter until they leave. For those talking about cleaners being under valued as a job as it's women's work - cleaner day is by far always my absolute favourite day of the week. It makes me so happy what they can do and better than me.

My Mum sacked her cleaner for that reason- apart from the fact she was a crap cleaner, she'd come in, sit in an armchair, put the TV on and eat her breakfast, all whilst my Mum was in the house. She was only there for 90 minutes, spent 20 of them eating and usually came up with some reason to leave early. Mum actually asked her to eat before she came because she wasn't paying her to eat her breakfast ,but she still did it so Mum sacked her!

I live in a 6 bed detached with 3 bathrooms and it probably takes me 4-4.5 hours to clean the whole house, drop her down to 3 hours and say you expect it to be done

Bloody Nora £25 AN HOUR. Mine is £12 and I’m south London.
We do 2.5 hours and she never sits down

I’ve had cleaners do 6hrs (two cleaners doing 3hrs), no break was taken. They cleaned from the minute they arrived till they left. Didn’t chat or waste time. Managed to clean a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom, 4 reception room house. I’d say your cleaner is taking the piss. Personally, I’d have a chat with her re your expectations and if she’s unable to meet them, find a new cleaner.

Would totally annoy me. It’s not like she’s there for ages. Have you discussed it with her? She should take her break after her hours.

Where are you?