Cleaner behaviour reasonable?

[Cookiecrumblepie]

My cleaner has started coming early/late by a few hours and today she didn’t show at all. I texted her and she said she was trying to come but had lost her Oyster card. I have to ask her directly when she will come and she always replies ‘around 12’, never a specific time.

I pay her £12.50 an hour cash in hand to clean a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom flat (2 hours). My flat is very tidy and clean (she has said it’s an easy job)
Is this pay rate reasonable?
Is her lateness etc reasonable?

I ask because every cleaner I’ve had has been similar - either not doing a good job or being a bit late here and there once they’ve been a few times and are comfortable. I’ve tried both through agency and by referral.

What are others experiences?

Amylox what utter shite...

The first five pounds of a cleaners salary every hour. When you take off taxes which normally are paid by the employer would usually pay rather than wage deductions, insurance, transport, accountancy fees, protective clothing, VAT and equipment they're £5 down each hour. The figure is from a report compiled by the Sheffield University Centre of Public Policy on the shadow economy and middle class people who employ domestic workers paying below the minimum wage.

Are you always so rude and badly informed? Or are you just a particular fan of exploiting poor people and I touched a raw nerve?

The amount she is paid is down to her, she sets her own fees.

I too am a sole trader... if I don't get my fees right I lose money. My responsibility. Just as declaring cash payments is.

I had a thread yesterday .. my (soon to be ex) cleaner cleans my 1 bed 1 bath tidy flat for £12/hour and has always claimed it took her 3 hours To do the list of jobs. Today our nest cam picked her up leaving 1.5 hours early. She also has been frequently late. Yours is not showing good signs. People take the piss when they can. Get rid

Bloody hell. I used to be a cleaner. 2 beds, 1 bathroom, one kitchen, lounge diner and hall/stairs landing = 2 hours easy. And that's not a "surface clean" whatever that is. It's moving toasters, cleaning bathroom floor on hands and knees, properly polishing the shower screen... and having a sort of mental rota to keep on top of things like inside of windows. I could probably make a good job of your place in about an hour Op, if it's as clean and tidy as you say.

I don't think 2 hours is unreasonable. I know I couldn't clean a flat in 2 hours properly.
It's probably not worth her time to travel to you for just 1 hour anyway. I'm not sure you would find a cleaner that would do as such.
I also don't think it's unreasonable to give you a slot of a few hours, much like a delivery driver would.

She should absolutely inform you if she is unable to show, or if she is coming PM instead of an agreed AM.

Are you always so rude and badly informed? Or are you just a particular fan of exploiting poor people and I touched a raw nerve?

Me? I’m just a self employed cleaner who declares every penny I get and know how much goes in expenses.

But what do I know?

Oh. Clearly your experience can be applied to every cleaner in the world and you speak for them with one voice and Sheffield Uni shouldn't have bothered doing in depth, peer reviewed research of the industry and just asked you instead.

You got it.