To be appalled at an email I’ve just received

[EltonHoratio]

I do a little bookkeeping in the evenings to help out with bills plus a little cleaning here and there.

The bookkeeping is for a holiday home company. I’ve been in email contact with an owner of a holiday home, let’s call her Joan. Joan is complaining about the cost of cleaning her three bedroom holiday cottage £60 is four hours at £15 an hour.

Not unusual for an owner to ask and it be explained it’s difficult to get cleaners in this area for less.

Joan has continued to complain and her last email explains the rigorous process she goes through to train her cleaners and to regularly turn up unannounced to check up on them, she proudly states they know she could turn up at any time but never know exactly when that will be. She claims it stops them wasting her time and money on fag breaks and playing on their phones! She proudly attached her own checklist of how to clean, including gems like hoovering carpets and cleaning toilets, who knew?

A quick stalk of her on Facebook and she’s one of these “I sold my soul to help the orphans of Cambodia”, plus she runs her own “charity”.

She’s a fucking hypocrite! Sorry just need to air this.

If no one rich, right or conservative gives anything to charity, as it's hypocritical, I would wager that would make a lot of charities rather a lot poorer.

I think your point - if puppy23 is right and it's simply don't exploit the people who work for you whilst simultaneously ostentatiously giving to charity - would work better if she was exploiting cleaners rather than simply checking that they're working for their (quite generous) £15 an hour.

£15 an hour is a £30k annual salary. Above the national average. That's pretty good for no qualifications, no risk, no stress nor responsibility.

I still don’t know what you’re complaining about, OP. It makes sense for her to make sure someone is doing their job thoroughly, doesn’t it?!!

@arethereanyleftatall
Surely that's the gross figure though, not net?

Yes, gross. Still pretty good.

Sorry... I still don’t get it. If she is the manager/boss of the cleaners surely it’s her job to ensure they do it thoroughly. Having a checklist and spot checks sound pretty normal. Which bit do you think is awful?

£15 per hour is a lot more than I earn and way more than NMW. More than most shop assistants and care workers earn. More than a public service administrator will earn.

@arethereanyleftatall
Yes I suppose it is, more than I earn per hour, but then I get to sit on my bum at a desk all day and not have to clean stranger's pubes out of plugholes.

@Ivestoppedreadingthenews The woman who's checking is not the cleaners' manager, their boss is probably someone who works for the holiday home rental company. Joan owns a holiday home that she rents out so is hardly likely to be short of a bob or two. It's her apparent assumption that a cleaner would automatically be a piss-taking slacker trying to rip her off that sticks in OP's throat (and mine).

But the cleaners prob aren’t doing or can’t do a 39 hour week plus have to cover sick pay and holiday pay in their hourly rate. They might get 6 paid hours a day if they are lucky

Why wouldn’t she have provided a list of what should be cleaned?

You say you do cleaning. Do you not agree what tasks are expected with clients? Every cleaner I’ve had has wanted to.

I am completely lost

is the crime of "Joan" the fact she dares employing cleaners?

Why is a woman with a cleaning company paying and invoicing herself to clean her own caravan? This makes no sense OP.

Is your issue that Joan is double checking that she’s actually receiving the full cleaning hours that you’re billing her?

If so, I don’t think she’s unreasonable.

As a guest, I’d be happy. I’ve stayed in some dirty Airbnb properties. And I’ve also employed some lazy, short-changing cleaners. It’s good that she takes her hosting responsibilities seriously

I dont understand.

I'm glad she's kind to hedgehogs though.

I see why "Joan" is annoying.

This pp sums it up perfectly.
puppy23 Fri 05-Jul-19 23:03:21
I think OPs trying to say that if Joan is charity supporting and left wing then she should want her cleaning staff to be fairly and adequatly paid? I think?

How are the bookkeeping and the cleaning connected?

The book keeping isn't. The housekeeping is only because OP works in that too, so knows the going rates, and that to her "Joan" is being a tightwad about paying for a reasonably priced service.

Ahhhh!! Thank you for clarifying.

What?

"I think OPs trying to say that if Joan is charity supporting and left wing then she should want her cleaning staff to be fairly and adequatly paid?"

BUT £15 per hour for a 4 hour stint IS adequately paid for a cleaner

The OP seems to feel that noone rich and / or leftwing should check on their cleaner

btw, many chariable donors are NOT leftwing - is it ok for someone right of centre and charitable to check their cleaner ?

"A quick stalk of her on Facebook"

So you didn't know before about her charity, but looked her up for checking on her cleaners

Strange that a "book-keeper" is so sensitive about a cleaner being checked on,
that she would waste her own - unpaid - time stalking her own client

Sounds more like what the pissed-off cleaner would do

Drivel. Makes no sense. Someone involved in charity can't possibly be cost conscious or want a job doing well? She's not enslaving people by checking, and particularly not when they're on £15/h. Very odd post indeed.

Why must she be left wing if she runs a charity?

And why cant she be left wing if she wants to check she is getting the service she is paying for.

Wether right or wrong Joan feels that 4 hours at £15 per hour is alot for the job she wants doing. So occassionally checks she is getting value for money.

Most people want value for money. Why that has anything to do with her political leanings, or makes her a bad person, I just dont understand.

eltonhoratio your posts make sense, and your point is perfectly clear. People are being stupid on purpose presumably, for shits and giggles. I agree with you and recognise the type of person Joan is.

And yet according to OP, it's enough to qualify you as a c**t.