To feel sad & horrified by these comments from a former cleaner

[strivingtosucceed]

twitter.com/TabitaSurge/status/1260647664565121027

The lady in the tweets is a former cleaner who has spoken about the issues she had during her time as a cleaner. She's spoken of horrific things like clients leaving, sick, skid marks and crusted over appliances for her to clean. Others have also spoken about being 'tested' with money left out and casually followed about the house.

Judging by the amount of people who have cleaners on this board, she's probably one of you. Would anyone admit to it though?

And this is why I would never have a cleaner. Not that I can afford one.

Should clarify that I mean you clearly up your own skanky mess not leave it for someone else.

So they expected their clients to clean before they came to clean?

If you leave shit,puke and pubic hair for your cleaner, then, yes, they are going to despise you

I’m not even surprised, some people are disgusting!

So they expected their clients to clean before they came to clean?

Yes, people should clean up their own pubes and shit stains. What the fuck?

It doesn't surprise me.

Lots of people treat service staff (dog walkers, cleaners etc.) as the lowest of the low who are simply not to be trusted.

I think it’s pretty fair to expect people to clean up things like blood, puke and shit before your cleaner arrives. Surely cleaners are just there to Hoover and dust and wipe down.

I don’t leave skid marks or puke or disgusting grills for my cleaners to tackle, nor do I follow them round the house - I shut myself and the dog away in the office so I am not under foot, I pay immediately, I thank them properly every time, I give them a Christmas present, and I leave fulsome praise on the company’s website.

My cleaners work for a company, so they are furloughed at the moment. If I employed them directly, I would be paying them, but as the company staff are being paid on the furlough scheme, I don’t think it is necessary.

I hope that I am considerate and that my cleaners feel valued and appreciated - it would break my heart if they hated me as much as the cleaner in that twitter quote does.

Yeah, no-one (outside of a personal care provider) should have to clean someone else’s puke, shit or pubes. That’s beyond acceptable. I might despise doing that for any of my clients. Thankfully they’re all decent and don’t leave me any such delights!

Why do her comments make you feel sad? Sad for her having to do all that?

I wouldn't lob a brick through any of my clients windows. Mind you in my ten years of cleaning I've never been left filthy toilets or anything gross.
Apart from end of tenancy stuff. Filth fills me with joy in those cases as I get paid nicely for filth.

So they expected their clients to clean before they came to clean?

Er….skid marks, jizz, cat poo yes I should bloody well think nobody would ever be skanky enough to leave that for their cleaner.

So they expected their clients to clean before they came to clean?

Well, yes. Unless you think it's acceptable to leave your bodily excretions lying around for other people to clear up?

Some people are grim, and some people think that certain professions, including waiting staff, cleaners etc, are beneath them, and treat them with contempt.

As an ex cleaner, even my nicest clients left some ghastly things for me to deal with, with a breezy, "oh yes, toddler pooed on the floor the other day but we knew you were coming soon, would you mind...?"

Why so many threads about cleaners all of a sudden

It’s almost as if someone has an obsession....

That’s a horrific way to treat someone.

I like to think people like that are in the minority, though I don’t know. The tweets read as though “every last one” of us who has a cleaner acts like that and I find that hard to believe.

I hired my cleaner through a company who told me to do the money test to prove how reliable they are! I didn't do it because I thought it would be insulting.

@NotACleverName tbh I don’t think normal people ever have poo stains anywhere surely? I mean if you got poo on something wouldn’t you just trod it away or clean it immediately or something?

But I don’t see the big deal about pubic hair. It sheds the same as regular hair. Surely you wouldn’t expect someone to pick any stray the pubic hairs off their bedding/the floor before a cleaner came?

This tweet is kind of part of a bigger picture though. A few female columnists have been piling on Owen Jones on twitter over the last few days. Owen says that people should not be asking their cleaners to come to work and putting them at risk during the pandemic; they should be paid to stay at home instead. The columnists are saying that it is a feminist issue and that the cleaners want to work as it is part of their identity.

So this tweet wasn’t out of the blue, it was part of the wider argument.

Why so many threads about cleaners all of a sudden confused

It’s almost as if someone has an obsession.

Yep it’s weird!

It strikes me reading those tweets that the cleaner is angry at the 'British lady' and women she had to clean for. Somehow women employing cleaners is a power imbalance, but men never get called out for having people cleaning for them (paid or unpaid). This cleaner should realise most of the world's wealth is in the hands of men and attack that system, not the women who have been more successful in navigating the shitty system - that changes nothing.

@Sparklfairy you’ve just scarred me for life. @NotACleverName never mind.

It doesn't surprise me. I've heard of clients leaving sanpro in underwear. The place should be tidy so a cleaner can clean. There is no point expecting them to spend an hour picking up laundry, toys, a weeks toast crumbs etc from the floor.
I done it when I was out of work, the best houses are the tidy one you can really put a shine on them. The messy ones just looked tidy after 2 hours.

Not that I'd ever leave gross stuff like that about obviously, but when we've had a cleaner in the past I've spent so much time cleaning and tidying before they came I realised I might as well do it anyway!!

Bodily fluids, no, that's gross. A 'crusty' hob? Surely the whole point of a cleaner is so you don't have to clean? Anything beyond a quick wipe down would make me wonder what the point of it was - if I was going to get the scrubbing brush out myself, why pay for someone else to wipe around after me? That's a two minute easy job I do myself. The actualy cleaning is what I pay the cleaner for.