Aibu to expect my clients to stay out of the way?

[Tootsey11]

I'm a cleaner, I have a number of clients who are WFH. All men. Their wives all assured me that 'they will keep out of the way' while I am cleaning. They don't. All the cleans are 2 hours so not a long time. But they all are up and down stairs, toilet breaks, coffee making, lunch making, just getting a drink, I'm meeting them on the stairs, I'm hoovering and turn round and they are there. Am I wrong to be fed up with it. Why can't anyone just set themselves up where they are working and stay there until I leave. These are all pre booked appointments so they know when I am due round.

If you wfh do you constantly get in the cleaners way.

Hmmm I’m half way here

I always try to keep out of the way. However with my work there’s limited times I can get lunch or a drink, need to do it between calls and online meetings.

I certainly wouldn’t use a bathroom mid being cleaned if there’s another one, or walk over a wet floor just to get a drink however.

Give and take as a pp said

Do you come at the same time every week?
Over the holidays we were often all here when the cleaners came. They dont usually give me a set time theyll arrive though so not easy to plan for everyone to be out. I didnt think i had to. Theyve never said anything

Totally agree, OP, I stay out of my cleaners way, and nip out perhaps once in a three hour clean when she's upstairs. I bet most women do.

Tell them that with all the interruptions to your routine you're going to need an extra hour or 2 to get the work completed.

Are you being hired by the wives in these situations or by the WFH husbands? Not that it matters but as you mention, where you have clients and they are WFH women, they tend to let you get on with the cleaning and only come out from their home offices/rooms when you're done and the men aren't able or willing to do this.

I would consider giving these people one final warning in writing stating that you either need more time to clean their homes, thereby making it more expensive to clean or you need to be left alone to clean and the family members working from home/being home-schooled, need to restrict themselves and stay in one room to allow you clean the home in the 2 hrs that you have allocated to them.
Any change in this will result in you terminating the arrangement from the next scheduled visit and as you have a list of possible clients you will have to put their names on the waiting list at that stage.

That should help things one way or the other.

Yes agree with you, OP, it burns up your time and you can miss things. One of them expected to monologue at me for an hour and wasn’t interested to know if I could spare the time. There’s also the safety aspect in terms of walking across wet floors, and hovering around when you’re using a vacuum.

Try emailing/texting with a reminder, it may help but I’ve found they would ‘forget’ after a week or so. Maybe they should clean their own places if they want free run of their house at all times?

I think it is disrespectful of them.

YANBU, I work from home a lot. When my cleaner comes I stay in my office. She knows where I am if she needs anything. Would ever dream of getting in her way.

They are taking the piss and this is totally male entitlement.

I would give the offenders one more warning and tell them they will be removed from your books if it continues. And be firm about this.

I do as a PP does and stay in my office with a sandwich lunch and water bottle. Office is a tip so quite glad it doesnt get cleaned

@KingsleyShacklebolt

DH is working from home on the day the cleaner is here. He does stay in his office - mostly - but banning toilet breaks or making a cup of tea for 3 hours is a bit unreasonable, isn't it?

Not if there is an en-suite that isn't being cleaned (or was cleaned first so it could be used again) but to do what the OP is suggesting is also unreasonable - clean the kitchen - then the householder comes in makes themselves a sandwich/toast/whatever and leaves the clean kitchen messy again. Looks like the cleaner was never there. That's unreasonable too, right? Couldn't the householder fix their food before the cleaner comes? Fix a flask of tea/coffee and drink that when the cleaner is there. Use the loo before the cleaner comes?

All cleans are pre booked, time is agreed and never changes, so they all know when I'm due in.

And to answer a previous comment, yes it's the wives that have arranged me to clean. Some told me at the start that no one would be working from home, then a few cleans in, I would get told their husbands would be at home but wouldn't get in my way.

I did sack one house were the husband would still be in bed, he would come downstairs when I was cleaning the kitchen, make his breakfast beside me in his dressing gown, then plop himself at the table to eat it and read the paper. He was a pillock who would snap the hoover out of my hand if he didn't like the shape of the cable. The wife has asked me to return.

What's your problem? That you don't like people? That they're slowing you down?

You just need to be clear with people, whatever the truth is.

"I hate people, my hourly rate is double in houses where annoying blokes hang out"

or

"Your husband slows me down. Either you lock him in the room or I do 3 minute less cleaning because I'm not staying late to compensate for your hubby getting in my way"

"I hate people, my hourly rate is double in houses where annoying blokes hang out"

I might implement this new charging structure myself!

Tell your clients that due to constant disruption, if you go over your time then you'll have to charge extra. Might make them focus a bit.

Interesting, I stay out of the way. My husband however, thinks nothing of making a drink (and making cleaner one too), getting a snack, having a chat, coming and going, whereas I stay shut in my office!

I think if people are being unpleasant - yes - that is completely unreasonable - if someone comes down in a limited time slot to make a sandwich and leaves some crumbs or a foot print on floor I would just point out you have already cleaned that. & if they step on a wet floor that is their lookout. Your job has been done.

I have 2 dogs - I try to keep them away but if I see little doggy paw prints on a mopped floor if they have got out of where they are - that is my problem not the cleaner's.

Yes give and take , but not anything that makes you uncomfortable - on the other hand it is that person's house so they shouldn't necessarily have to make a packed lunch and take a flask up unless they want to . Equally if they have 10 mins for a sandwich - that may be what they have

M
DH is thinking of pat pending a method where if the kitchen floor is still damp he puts kitchen roll under his feet to get to the fridge and sort of skates over. I do not think we will be seeing him on Dragons' Den any time soon.

It’s their home, you need to work around them. What do you do in school holidays or if kids are off sick, expect them not to move from the sofa or go the loo/make a drink until you’re done?

If you cleaned in a workplace like an office or hospital you’d be cleaning around people constantly.

” I did sack one house were the husband would still be in bed, he would come downstairs when I was cleaning the kitchen, make his breakfast beside me in his dressing gown, then plop himself at the table to eat it and read the paper. He was a pillock who would snap the hoover out of my hand if he didn't like the shape of the cable. The wife has asked me to return.”

😂 Some of them think they’re living in Downton Abbey. I’ve met similar pillocks.

What do you do in school holidays or if kids are off sick,

If kids sick I expect client to inform me and give me the option of rearranging or cancelling. and that if I chose to come kid would be staying in one room that I wouldn’t be cleaning. This is what has happened previously.

If kids off school on holidays I wouldn’t be coming.

I'm with you Tootsey11 the people saying you should work around the household clearly don't live round here where, if you have a good cleaner, you keep him/her happy.

I would also ask them if they have ever washed a floor themselves, only to have someone walk over it during or just after its done. It's infuriating.

I think I would start with a blanket email saying "just a friendly note to say that given a choice, I would prefer to clean in a house undisturbed. Obviously if this is not possible then so be it, but it would certainly be my preference .." if they don't pick up on your hint maybe give them one more chance by speaking to the person who hired you. Failing that, I'd be off. I can't stand an audience for anything I'm doing. It would drive me round the bend. Imagine hoovering away and not hearing the door open, then turning round and some creepy fucker you've never met is standing inbetween you and the door. Urgh.

Interesting that it's only men.

While I think to an extent a cleaner needs to be able to work around clients, trying to use the bathroom mid-clean is not really on (I always go to the loo when my cleaner arrives so I won't need the bathroom for a while!) and wouldn't stroll around getting multiple drinks. I lurk in my box-room office except for a point when, by mutual agreement, vacate it to make a cuppa so she can hoover in there.
For balance I should say that if my (male) DP is home he stays out of her way as much as possible. But then again he's not an arsehole.

YANBU. It's disrespectful to make sandwiches and leave crumbs etc all over a work surface that you've just cleaned, ditto walking over floors you're trying to mop etc.

I WFH and only have 2-3 cups of tea throughout the working day, I could easily go for 2 hours without making a tea, definitely wouldn't make anything to eat whilst the cleaner was there and I would try and not use the toilets til after they left too, or just use the nearest one in case I tried to use one they were using etc. It's just being polite and respectful, it's 2 hours a week, they can cope!

YANBU OP As you say, if you were a painter or decorator they would not be in your way. Your post makes me think that all these men so called WFH are actually just pissing about (literally too it seems).

@Duchess379

I have cleaners - I stay in one room & keep out the way. It's not that hard!

I thinknit depends how they work. If they do a room at a time its easy to stay in that room until they want to get inand then move to one where they have finished. But we had one who would go round the whole house moving chIrs and sofas, then go round again doing the dusting/wiping, then again with the vacuum etc. Never knew where she would appear next so it was hard to keep out of her way especially if the chairs were on the table. Easier to be out when she came.

"If kids off school on holidays I wouldn’t be coming."

Why not have a conversation along the lines of I won't realistically be able to do as much during the school holidays if everyone is in the house. Maybe they could go out for a couple of hours to accommodate you.

Other people have lives too.

But you are absolutely entitled to choose your own clients.