To expect my cleaner to do her contracted hours?

[DirtyDripSpout]

I have a great cleaner who does a good job around the house. We have her for 4 hours and I always pay her a 15% tip. We are normally not in when she comes in, but I do have a security camera at the entrance so I can tell what time she comes in and leaves.

Today I noticed she left 50 mins early. I don't mind if she left 15/20 mins early but AIBU to have expected her to stay for at least 30 mins extra. There is always something extra to do in our house. Personally I wouldn't leave my job that early without prior agreement, and I would have thought if she needed to leave early, she should have told me.

One of the reasons I had to let m last cleaner go was because she always used to leave an hour early. I never said anything as she was really good too - but then the leaving early became a regular occurance. I still paid her for 4 hours and there were still bits that were not done.

I gave up on our cleaner as she was cutting short her 2 hrs per week and goodness knows there was more than enough cleaning for that amount of time. Replaced with a robohoover and a slightly grubby house.

Assuming that you don't have an employer/ employee relationship (ie she is sort employed) and your contract is an hourly rate with jobs to be directed, then I'd pay her for hours and part hours worked - again unless your contract says otherwise.
There was another thread where it seemed to be accepted that part hours worked deserved an hour's pay, to me an hour is an arbitrary unit on which the pay rate is determined - this could just as easily be minutes, days etc. It is a per time rate.

I'd text her back "Sorry to hear you were unwell and hope you are feeling better now. Our entry security has the times logged as xx in and xx out which makes it 3hr 10min. I'll pay the 3hr 30mins that you've said you were there this time as a goodwill gesture, but do expect the agreed hours to be performed in the future as there are plenty of jobs on the extras list when the basics have been done. Obviously if you do have to leave early for other reasons please let me know so that I can adjust payment accordingly."

That should say self employed.

Just admit you have a camera to her and say "our camera shows you entering the premises at X and leaving at X, this is only 3h 10m, if you need to leave early for whatever reason I expect to be informed and the time to be made up"

I'm not sure if I'd be willing to clean up dog mess either, but they're the jobs agreed between the women and the client. We get a lot of requests that aren't standard cleaning, and a lot of the cleaners are willing to do them.

This:

I'd text her back "Sorry to hear you were unwell and hope you are feeling better now. Our entry security has the times logged as xx in and xx out which makes it 3hr 10min. I'll pay the 3hr 30mins that you've said you were there this time as a goodwill gesture, but do expect the agreed hours to be performed in the future as there are plenty of jobs on the extras list when the basics have been done. Obviously if you do have to leave early for other reasons please let me know so that I can adjust payment accordingly."

I think it is not a good idea to pay cleaners by an hour as CF cleaners might start working at a slower pace. I have a cleaner once a month for a deep clean and pay her for the list of jobs to be done. It is up to her then how much time to spend on it. Sometimes it is 6 hours, sometimes 8. Sometimes her lunch break takes 15 min, sometimes an hour - quality of her work is all I am concerned about. Arrangement works perfectly for both of us, both are happy.

If she's leaving almost an hour early, tell her you're reducing the hours to 3 instead of 4 as you've noticed that she often leaves quite early

I would keep an eye on your entry/leaving times over the next fortnight. If this was a one off and she genuinely was ill then why stuff up a perfectly good relationship with a great cleaner over this? If she keeps taking the piss then I would certainly be tackling her though.

She put the sofa cushions upside down? Outrageous, what a CF, sack her and change your locks.

Just say you popped home when she should have been there and realised she had left, and is everything ok?

She might not have know about the camera before but I bet she does now you've mentioned leaving early. It'll be interesting to see if she leaves bang on time in future.

Do not mention the camera.

She knows you’re onto her and if she’s smart she won’t do it again.

But if she does you have to talk to her. Ask if there’s any reason she’s having to rush away before time and if the start time needs moving.

We have a growing situation with our cleaners (2 @ 2hrs each every Thursday) where they have plenty time to strip beds and change them, launder the bedsheets and do kitchen clean, bathroom clean and general hoovering.

They now don’t tidy.

They now don’t mop the bathroom.

They used to leave the place sparking.

After reading umpteen threads on here I know I need to give them the chance to improve by talking to them about what I’m seeing and what they’re doing and how it can be improved.

I know it’s a case of cba-ness. This is the same with your lady. Just talk to her. And re-affirm boundaries.

Random question @tashac89 - is it normal to expect cleaners to tidy as well as clean? Not rakes of toys or tonnes of Lego but just to stack things neatly, like books in a book case that have been ransacked by children?

Hmm it’s a tricky one but I’d personally nip it in the bud now because I agree with some of the other posters saying sometimes people get comfortable when they’ve been doing the job for a little while.

We had a good cleaner (as in the cleaning was good) but she was always switching days or cancelling literally 5/10 minutes before she was due to arrive and whenever I was at home I noticed she’d leave a bit early but we let it go because she was good enough.

After a few months we started to notice the quality of clean went down massively and out of interest checked the key logbook at our security (renters so couldn’t give her a personal key, she had to check it out and return it) and she’s been doing 1hr 20/30 minutes cleaning for months and months. We were paying her for 3 hours.

I would personally love a cleaner but I think I'd feel obligated to clean before they arrived. I don't think I could ask someone to let the dogs out as that's dog walker territory? Plus ones deaf so you physically have to be in line of vision to get them back in. I definitely wouldn't ask someone else to pick up their poo, and ironing isn't really on my radar. So I'm not even sure what I'd pay them to do? If the house is tidy it's a quick 1hr hoover mop floors job and if it's a mess I'd not have the gaul to expect someone else to sort it all out. So is it 2/3hrs to hoover, mop, dust or what?

An alternative might be to pay her by the jobs, so you agree on a job list to be done to a good standard and she just does that then leaves when finished.