Covid and cleaner

[UnicornAndSparkles]

A very first world problem, I know. Forgive me.

We are fortunate enough to have had a regular cleaner pre-covid. 2 ladies, once a week for 1.5h.

Since covid all the ladies in the company were furloughed. They're now back working and we've been asked if we would like to have them back. I'm unsure. Is it too soon? They would be wearing masks and gloves but obviously would have been in and out of several people's homes so it's a bit of a risk.

My DH and I are relatively low-risk, in our 30s. Our 3yr old goes to nursery and is in a bubble if 8 kids 2 days a week. The rest of the week she is with us.

Are we mad for wanting our wonderful cleaning ladies back? Is this an unnecessary risk? Obviously we have been doing the cleaning ourselves so its not a tip! But would be lovely to have a professional clean again and use our Sunday mornings with our DD rather than taking turns to clean.

AIBU voting:

Yes = get the cleaner back. Perhaps you have too?

No = too risky, a second wave is coming and we need to be more aware. You shouldn't have cleaners in your home if it can be avoided.

We are getting our cleaner back the first week of August, we're going to go out for the few hours she cleans. I think it should be fine to get yours back too.

@LillianBland

It doesn't upset me at all. You're a stranger on the internet - your opinion really isn't that important to me

That’s good, because you came across as very defensive, but carry on taking whatever risks you want. I’ll carry on doing my best to protect my clients. Both of us can believe were right and time can tell us if we’re wrong.

That's fine. You take whatever precautions you want. I didn't jump on you and cast a load of judgement about your decisions - you're the only one who's done that and it was totally unnecessary.

Like I said, I can't wear a mask. I follow all the guidance necessary to do my job safely. If you want to take further precautions, go ahead, but it's not your place to judge other people who choose to do things differently.

I would be more worried about your child in a bubble of 8 than a cleaner with a mask.

We have not re-employed our cleaners for two reasons (1) we now wfh and save a lot of commute time so can do more at home and (2) I felt with cleaners going into several different houses a day it would be easy to transfer a virus. They have asked to return but I said I wanted to leave it a couple of months (mostly over flu season).

Ours started back at the end of May. It's been fine, we just stay out of her way. But then her daughter and mine have been back in school in the same bubble so to be honest if there are germs around we've probably already been exposed...

Thanks for all the comments.

I agree I am more worried about the nursery bubble than cleaners, but at the moment nursery is essential for us, whereas the cleaners are not. We have no other childcare and both DH and I work and cannot keep up the 18h days (work plus childcare) we were doing for the first 3.5m of covid, so we sent DD back to nursery a week ago, on a limited basis.

@Msfrazzled why should I not call them "ladies"?! They are all women. The manager of the company calls her staff "her ladies", is this offensive?! Im a woman and I don't take offence at being called a lady?!

Ladies just comes over a bit patronising that's all.

WTF is wrong with calling them “ladies”!? Stupidly, MN is a parallel universe, posters want to see offence everywhere.

Not stupidly, I meant “seriously”🙈🤦🏻‍♀️.

I must type that more than I think as phone defaulted to it.

I think it all depends on how well you know your cleaner. A lady I know had a regular cleaner pre covid and after finding out she was regularly meeting with 3 or 4 other households (usually in excess of 15 people) in her parents house right from the beginning of lockdown she had given her the big heaveho.

I'm not offended, just think it's belittling. Fair enough once or twice but gets a bit draining. Especially if you then have to clean their bog.

Voting not clear to me but I think it's fine to have your cleaner back.

MrsFrazzled How would you prefer the OP refer to them?

Not clear about the voting but i clicked YANBU meaning you are NBU to have your cleaners back

I am a domestic cleaner and I have been back since early june

TBH the clients who haven't had me back yet or bothered contacting me I am not going back to

We've had our cleaner back for about 6 weeks, from whenever Boris said go to work if you can't work from home.

We WFH & the kids are home schooling but we just keep out of her way, she doesn't clean our home office.

Could probably have just called them cleaners instead of 'cleaning ladies'

Or obviously they're women (in this case), employees, people, whatever.

Just saying.

MrsFrazzeled So women or people is better than “ladies”😂

It depends on the sentence surely. Fgs all these Mumsnet ladies are really over the top.

Our cleaner returned 2 weeks ago. We went out of the house last time (Annual Leave) but will just stay in the front room this week as we're wfh.
Given the need for good hygiene atm I'm more than happy our home is getting thoroughly cleaned again.

MrsFrazzled Ok, here is a sentence..

cleaners turn up to work.....

Householder....“morning, people”

Or would “morning, ladies” sound better? Now stop being obtuse for the sake of it and treat cleaners with some respect.

Respect! You could call them by their names! Morning Laura, morning Jane whatever. Or just good morning.

Anyway had enough of this. Patronise whoever you want!

I don’t think I’d be comfortable with someone in the house who has been in multiple houses but it depends on what risks you are willing to take personally.

MrsFrazzled You didn’t mention calling them by their names, you said “women, employees, people, whatever”. Or cleaners. And it would be odd to call them by their name on the thread so “cleaning ladies” is just fine.

I think it’s more patronising that ladies can’t be referred to as ladies.

my cleaner never stopped coming