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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be annoyed when my clients are still in pjs when I turn up for work?

336 replies

missjenniferhoney · 14/12/2014 22:36

I'm a self employed domestic cleaner, have been for a number of years. I've recently taken on a few new clients (since Oct/Nov) and have been surprised to turn up to work at their homes to find them still in nightwear. It happened at 2 appointments last week, both at 9.30 in the morning. I turn up at the same time on the same day each week, so I'm not unexpected, and I always knock on the front door for them to let me in before using my own key as I think it is just polite. I honestly didn't know how to react, so just ignored it and got on with the cleaning after a quick 'Good morning, how are you?'

AIBU to wish they would get dressed before I arrive?

OP posts:

MarshaBrady · 15/12/2014 11:24

I get dressed every morning and couldn't stay in my pjs but yabu.

'Appointment' is overstating it. You are not there to meet with them.

BuggersMuddle · 15/12/2014 11:43

I think if they were decent then speaking up is a bit off to be frank. Of course it's up to you what you feel comfortable with but as long as they were covered up I think you are being more than a little precious and rather self-important.

whereismagic · 15/12/2014 11:46

YANBU. You are an employee, not a servant. The test would be: if they had an office at home and their assistant or another employee came would they be in PJs. I bet they wouldn't so yes, it is disrespectful. My mum was born and lived in her childhood in a place where people rented summer houses. Locals were appalled at people wondering around in slippers and dressing robes over PJs.

Greengrow · 15/12/2014 11:50

Ours often comes at 7.15am. Whatever the day I always make sure I am up before then and dressed (not all the children always are). If someone can be bothered to come here to do cleaning for me the least I can do is be dressed (although I accept that some people work shifts etc where it could be more difficult)

Also it probably depends on the nightwear - see through nighty seeing her breasts and the like is probably less reasonable than thick winceyette pyjamas which are as thick as most outer clothes.

whereismagic · 15/12/2014 11:50

Oh, and I wouldn't say anything, I'd quit. Just as you wouldn't tell off somebody who feels it's ok to fart near other people, spit chewing gum etc.

OnlyLovers · 15/12/2014 11:54

somebody who feels it's ok to fart near other people, spit chewing gum etc. I'm at the suggestion that being in PJs in the day might be comparable to those.

LikeASoulWithoutAMind · 15/12/2014 11:55

Maybe they don't work standard hours and that was their day off? Maybe the house was a tip and so they thought it would be a better use of their time to tidy it up before you came? Maybe they'd been out to a Christmas party the night before?

Dh works for himself and often gets up at 5 or 6 to work in his dressing gown - he can work solidly through to say 10am before having a shower. So maybe some people might be a bit judgy if they saw him at 9.30am, even though he works really long hours.

diddl · 15/12/2014 11:56

"I will be washed and dressed by a reasonable hour. I seem to find it impossible to start my day without it. "

Same here.

Mind you, I go out everyday so PJs all day isn't an option.

Needadognow · 15/12/2014 11:57

You are posting in the wrong forum! Most of these women are middle class mummies all of which have cleaners like you. most I said MOST.

I'm with you, I think these women are tramps and should get their arses dressed in the morning but then again if they can't be bothered to clean their own house they won't be bothered to throw on some clean clothes.

Bowlersarm · 15/12/2014 11:57

@ whereismagic. You really don't like people who wear pyjamas do you.

m0therofdragons · 15/12/2014 11:59

My parents run their own company and are often working until 10pm. They're 60 and also have lay ins - occasionally until lunch time. They have no dependents and if they want to blob around the house they can. They've worked since they were 17 but you would label them lazy?

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 15/12/2014 11:59

OP please, please tell us how you would phrase your request to people not to wear pyjamas in their own homes?

cardibach · 15/12/2014 12:01

Greengrowits not about a cleaner begin 'bothered' to come is it? What an odd thing to say! I can be 'bothered' to go to my workplace too, but I don't get up as early on a day off...
But then Needadog sees having a cleaner as not being 'bothered' to clean your own house! How very strange. I'd be careful OP, if some posters on this thread have their way you'll be out if a job!

CalamityKate1 · 15/12/2014 12:02

I'm a cleaner and it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

However I disagree with the poster who said she'd be annoyed if you didn't let yourself in. I've got keys to most of my clients houses and let myself in if they're out but always knock if they're in - just in case they've forgotten I'm coming and are wafting around naked! It's only courteous I feel. Of course if they'd specifically asked me not to knock (sleeping babies etc) then I'd use my key.

SpicyBear · 15/12/2014 12:02

YABU. The idea of having a cleaner is to make life easier. I work from home and it would be very inconvenient if the two days a week she is here I have to worry about making myself presentable for her arrival. For example I wouldn't be able to go to certain exercise classes or would have to get up an hour earlier to get ready when I have urgent work to deal with.

PuppyMonkey · 15/12/2014 12:05

Needadognow - you're a silly sausage. I mean this in a loving way.

OnlyLovers · 15/12/2014 12:06

if they can't be bothered to clean their own house they won't be bothered to throw on some clean clothes.

Oh please piss off. And I don't care if that gets me deleted.

Do you also think ill of people who 'can't be bothered' to service their own cars and take them to a garage? Or 'can't be bothered' to paint their own homes and get decorators in? Or is it specifically cleaning that you think people (well, you say 'women') who have cleaners are lazy about and should do themselves?

If everyone could 'be bothered' to clean their houses themselves, an awful lot of people would be out of work.

Chalalala · 15/12/2014 12:15

both DH and I work full-time, and I work from home - but I'm the one who "can't be bothered to clean my own house", why is that? because I'm the "mummy"?

actually I don't even have a cleaner, and I do clean my own house, lol! But I'd get a cleaner if I could afford it, so this still irritated me.

cheeseandpineapple · 15/12/2014 12:22

OP, take it as a compliment, they're comfortable with you to be themselves with you. I have a lovely cleaner who laughs openly at me when she sees me in my pjs at 2pm, I work a lot from home and some days when I'm really busy, I leave getting dressed until the last possible moment before I have to go out.

She's the only person outside my family and v v close friends I would let see me like that and my only slight worry is that I may not be at my freshest then but I'm pretty sure i don't smell, I'm not a v sweaty person, v cold blooded but if your clients aren't at their freshest when you see them I can see that might be off putting to be around!

But I don't think that's your gripe, it's the fact they're not dressed you seem to have an issue with. I think it means they're relaxed with you and that reflects well on you, making them feel at ease around you.

HazleNutt · 15/12/2014 12:23

OP has only mentioned clients, or 'they'. But some posters immediately assume that they must be women who can't be bothered to clean their own houses.

GahBuggerit · 15/12/2014 12:28

I sometimes wear my PJs until abut 11am if I'm not working, because if Im going out later in the day in 'nice' clothes there is no point in getting out of my PJs, to get in my scruffs or house clothes, whatever, to then get proper dressed. Cuts down on cleaning clothes and getting my nice stuff scruffy while I'm just sitting on my arse watching tv.

YABU and a bit of a snob about it tbh. Unless we're talking peephole negligees.

TheBookofRuth · 15/12/2014 12:28

I'll hold my hands up as a woman who can't be bothered to clean her house - I'm a SAHM too. But why should I be bothered when I can afford not to and the young woman who does it for me is very appreciative of the money?

HazleNutt · 15/12/2014 12:32

DH is a SAHD. We have a cleaner. I bet plenty of people still judge me as the one who can't be arsed to clean her own house.

GooseyLoosey · 15/12/2014 13:27

I have never and would never have a clearner because I would not want anyone to come into my private space and judge me (even in the privacy of their own heads).

However, I work 150 miles away from home at least 3 days a week and get up at 5.00am to get to work and don't get home until around 8.00pm. If I had a cleaner and I was trying to get some much needed sleep, I would not worry too much about appearing in my PJs.

Needadognow · 15/12/2014 13:28

Forget I said the word women or mummy. It's fucking lazy to still be in your pjs at gone 11. Wash your fanny ann for fucks sake or the next thing you know your husband will be shagging his secretary.

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