Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To think that my friend is being a cheapskate?

51 replies

luvvaduck · 21/04/2021 23:03

A friend who lives alone employs a cleaner for four hours a week at £10 an hour. The same friend also took on a young dog that needed rehoming during lockdown and is trying to work out how she's going to manage the dog now she's returning to the office one day a week. The dog panics when left alone: it had to be rehomed because of this problem. My friend thought it would be easy to sort out, but despite her attempts at desensitisation the dog howls and poos when left for more than a few minutes.

The cleaner likes the dog and has said that she's happy to look after it while she's there cleaning and will take it for a good walk when she's finished and then stay on until my friend comes home, charging £10 per hour. That could be a total of £90.

My friend thinks that charging £10 an hour to look after the dog is outrageous. She's found a kennel not far away where her dog could spend the day in a concrete run for £18 — or £22 if she wants someone to take it out and exercise it in a field with other dogs.

My friend had to put the dog in these kennels for a day a few weeks ago and apparently the dog howled and paced and came home trembling and hoarse. My friend knows the dog will be unhappy in the kennel and much happier at home with the cleaner. She's told me she's going to offer the cleaner £40 for the four hours cleaning and then another £20 for 4-5 hours of dog-walking and dog-sitting till she gets home from work.

I've pointed out that that's lower than the living wage and said that I wouldn't even think of suggesting it. The cleaner seems very cheap to me anyway: most people I know pay £12-15 per hour. I also pointed out that my friend needs reliability and offering someone such a low rate will mean they'll drop her the moment something better comes along. I've suggested that my friend asks the cleaner to take on more cleaning tasks and do the ironing while she's there. My friend says there isn't enough work to do and the cleaner will be able to spend several hours watching TV and drinking tea with the dog. I've pointed out that she's going to be there, looking after the dog, and needs to be properly compensated even if she's not doing much.

My friend disagrees and is planning to ask her to work for five hours at £10ph and then accept £20 for an extra four hours, when she can do what she wants as long as she's there for the dog.

Am I being unreasonable to think she's being outrageously cheap and will end up without a cleaner? If you were the cleaner what would you do?

OP posts:

BramStoker · 21/04/2021 23:10

I can see your friend's logic and there is no harm in proposing her idea to the cleaner and see what she says. £90 per week every week is a lot of money so it would seem sensible to investigate cheaper options.

LadyWhistledownsQuill · 21/04/2021 23:10

YANBU. Minimum wage laws are there for a reason.

Twintub · 21/04/2021 23:11

I think it’s cheeky as the cleaner could be cleaning elsewhere for £10 why would she look after the dog for £5 an hour. I think she should value her cleaners time as she would expect her time to be valued .

Guavafish · 21/04/2021 23:12

I think you shouldn’t be outraged. It is up to the cleaner. She could refuse to accept the conditions and they could continue negotiations.

I suspect the dog may need to be rehoused eventually especially if she will need to work away from home.

Feelingconfused2020 · 21/04/2021 23:13

I think it's too little. Can the cleaner take the dog back to her house? As you say £10ph is very low pay anyway. I don't think I could ever offer less than that to someone. That said it's expensive compared to the kennels and I can see how frustrating it is for the friend. She shouldn't have got a dog she couldn't leave if she knew she would have to go back to work.

Incognitool · 21/04/2021 23:15

Is your friend a bit thick? The cleaner isn’t able to take on properly paid work elsewhere for those four hours! How would your friend feel if someone proposed to her that she took an unpaid half day weekly from her job and someone would give her £20 for it?

She’ll be lucky not to lose her cleaner over this.

Isthatabat · 21/04/2021 23:21

The dog drinks tea??

Original poster

luvvaduck · 21/04/2021 23:21

@Incognitool

She’ll be lucky not to lose her cleaner over this.

That's how I feel. The cleaner might accept the deal for a couple of weeks if she has nothing else on the books, but the moment something better comes up she'll just drop my friend.

OP posts:

Returnoftheowl · 21/04/2021 23:21

I guess it's up to the cleaner as to whether she wishes to accept. However, certainly where I live cleaners are in short supply, I'm not sure why she would accept basically half rates from someone when she could just take on a new client at the full rate.

BramStoker · 21/04/2021 23:22

@incognitool we don't know the cleaner's circumstances though. She may only clean PT and be studying for a degree or something in which case accepting £20 to spend the afternoon in the friend's house might suit her (dog walk for an hour then 3 hours study)

I think if does depend what the cleaner would otherwise be doing on the afternoon in question. If she could be cleaning someone else's house for £10/hr then she obviously won't want to accept less for dog sitting but we don't know if that is the case.

PyongyangKipperbang · 21/04/2021 23:59

So your friend wants her cleaner to basically lose money to compensate for your friends lack of foresight when taking on a dog that she cannot properly care for?

Friend is a fuckwit and if I was the cleaner I would a)telling her so and b) leaving her with a mucky house and doggy daycare.

PyongyangKipperbang · 21/04/2021 23:59

and NO doggy daycare

MiddleClassProblem · 22/04/2021 00:02

Doggy daycares are like £20 - £35 a day depending on area. And they are not out in kennels...

MiddleClassProblem · 22/04/2021 00:03

*put

HerMammy · 22/04/2021 00:08

For the sake of £20 she’ll lose her cleaner, just pay the £90 or the cleaner will be off earning the £10ph elsewhere.

BackforGood · 22/04/2021 00:26

What BramStokeram said.

The cleaner isn't 'losing money' is she would otherwise be siting in her own home watching Homes under the Hammer or Pointless.
She isn't 'losing money' if she would otherwise be studying, or surfing the net, or reading a book, or having an afternoon nap.

If the cleaner doesn't want to do it for that money, then she can say "No thanks - I've offered to do it for £10 an hour. It's not worth my while to do it for less". Or she might think that she might as well sit and relax in someone else's home (using their heating) as her own if that is what she would be doing anyway.

Incognitool · 22/04/2021 08:41

@BackforGood

What BramStokeram said.

Yes, but the cleaner has already articulated her position, and made it clear she values her time, post-the actual cleaning bit, to the tune of £10 an hour. From the OP:

If she's cleaning from, say, 9 until 1, then taking the dog for a 'good walk', that could easily be three o'clock or later if she takes a lunchbreak, so she may only be actually at the friend's house, sitting idly as company to the dog, for for a very short bit of the day.

Plus the OP's friend is coming out of this remarkably badly. I'm not a dog owner, or particularly attuned to canine matters, but even I noticed a lot of stuff in the media about not carelessly acquiring a 'lockdown dog' without thinking very carefully about how to manage when you return to the workplace -- she didn't think this through, and is now being a cheapskate about paying for her dog to be walked and kept company.

drugsdontwork · 22/04/2021 08:49

As others have said, if the cleaner would be losing out on other cleans for £10 an hour why would she work for half the money unless she would otherwise be doing nothing. Ideally she would find someone who would be at home either working or not. If your friend has another friend who works from home could they work from your friends house for the day and your friend pay them £20?

Thatisnotwhatisaid · 22/04/2021 08:50

I think the cleaner is being cheeky asking for so much. Kennels are cheap but obviously make the dog unhappy, dog sitters tend to charge around £30-40 for a full day though. My friend pays one about £40 for the 12 hours he’s at work. The cleaner is asking for more than twice that for 4 hours.

44PumpLane · 22/04/2021 08:54

Another option..... Couod your friend post on a local Facebook site and see if anyone in the local area would be willing to regularly look after the dog for a day?

My parents are retired and list their dog last year, don't want to get another dog but I'm sure would enjoy having a day of cuddles with someone else's dog without any of the liability of having a dog.

Your friend would have to be clear about where any liability lay, ie the person looking after the dog would not be expected to cover vet bills in the event of an accident, or be clear if she wouod expect them to to cover vet bills, so there is no confusion should the dog hurt themselves.

If she were to ask for help and perhaps offer a token amount she may find all her issues solved by someone at home through the day.

AnotherCupOfTeaVicar · 22/04/2021 08:55

Whilst the cleaner isn't losing money as PP put it, she will be working for less than she usually charges. Does she value a clean house more than the welfare of her rescue dog?
Looking after someone's dog holds greater responsibility than cleaning IMO.
Your friend took the dog on and needs to step up for her lack of foresight

IbrahimaRedTwo · 22/04/2021 08:56

es, but the cleaner has already articulated her position, and made it clear she values her time, post-the actual cleaning bit, to the tune of £10 an hour. From the OP

Indeed, and she will be well able to say NO to the offer OPs friend wants to make. She's a professional, she doesn't need to be patronised.

Incognitool · 22/04/2021 08:58

@IbrahimaRedTwo

es, but the cleaner has already articulated her position, and made it clear she values her time, post-the actual cleaning bit, to the tune of £10 an hour. From the OP

Indeed, and she will be well able to say NO to the offer OPs friend wants to make. She's a professional, she doesn't need to be patronised.

No one's 'patronising' her. But if I tell someone my going rate for a service, I don't expect them to haggle -- this isn't a car boot sale. They either accept or decline.

bedtimestories · 22/04/2021 08:59

What about doggie day care?

IbrahimaRedTwo · 22/04/2021 09:01

No one's 'patronising' her. But if I tell someone my going rate for a service, I don't expect them to haggle -- this isn't a car boot sale. They either accept or decline
I doubt you're in the gig economy then, because its quite normal.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread