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.

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

Seriously? Wow. I take it you don’t have clients with school age kids then.

For the poster who asked, no I don't hate people. Some of my clients are elderly, they are always in and like the company when I am there, but they don't continuously get it my way. Both men and women.

The ones I am talking about are the late twenties and those in their thirties who just don't seem to care or it just doesn't register with them. I am only there for a limited period of time, I want to do a good job, I am a perfectionist, but to do it right I like to be able to get on without being constantly interrupted or needing to stop what I'm doing and move to something else, then having to go back to a half finished job. @Firetimeagain you said the exact scenario that happened to me a few weeks back, hoovering in someone's kitchen, had earphones in, turned round and a bloke I'd never seen before that didn't live there was standing looking at me. He mumbled something about a receipt and left.

Using a bathroom that you are in the middle of cleaning when an alternative is available is very odd behaviour, I agree.

But the rest of it - I think YAB a bit U. DH and I have Teams calls all day and don't get to pick and choose when we are able to break for a drink or something to eat, and there is no predictable schedule to either of our days. We have a cleaner come in weekly and it wouldn't even occur to me to stay out of her way in the manner you describe.

I wouldn't give a damn about them leaving crumbs in the clean kitchen or footprints over a wet floor. You're there to clean, you've cleaned. If they choose to trash it five seconds after you've done it, or while you're doing it, then that's upto them. It's their house they're trashing, them who has to live with the mess. I wouldn't be redoing places I'd already done.

If they were repeatedly disturbing me to the point the job was taking longer than the time allowed, I'd tell them the hours needed to increase and the pay accordingly. I'd tell them why too.

But I'd ditch them as clients over this:

Using the bathroom that I'm in cleaning when they could use the one beside the room they are working in.

It's disrespectful. Nobody wants to go into a bathroom 5seconds after someone else has finished using it. I wouldn't let them off unless it's the only bathroom and they're ill and really can't wait for you to finish cleaning it before they use it.

Wow Tootsey11 that must have been a bit scary.

Did you find out who he was? That put you in quite a vulnerable position.

I think the person up thread who talked about reading a room had it spot on. I'm sure you're able to assess who enjoys ten minutes chat and who prefers you to get on with it.

It can't be all on their terms can it? (Stop you when they feel like it, get in the way when you're carrying out a task.)
You're providing a service and can choose whom you like as customers.

I'm usually in when my cleaner is. I make sure I've finished in the kitchen before she arrives (it's where she starts) and I aim to stay in my living room (the last place she cleans) until she goes upstairs. If the floors are dry, I might make myself a drink at that point (but I make sure I clean up any minor mess, so that it still looks good when she goes back in at the end).
When she's ready to do the living room, I disappear upstairs until she calls up that she's done for the day.

It's only fair. I don't appreciate people getting in the way when I'm working, so I afford her the same consideration.

@Roominmyhouse

I don’t have a cleaner but if I did I’d expect to still be able to use the toilet or make a drink in my own home while they were there!

Which is fine as long as you don't expect the cleaner to go back to re-clean the areas they've already done and which you have used since then.

YANBU. I don't understand people like that. When I had a cleaner, I'd make myself a cup of tea when they arrived, go upstairs, stay there whilst they cleaned downstairs, then go downstairs when they wanted to clean upstairs. Or be out of the house entirely.

YANBU they should stay out of your way.

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.

Why would it be better for me to ask them to leave their home during their holiday? If they wanted to leave for me to clean, they would already had told me “kids are off school but we’re heading out”. Which is what pretty much always happens. If a client said “kids are off school so we’ll all be here” I would say “no worries, I’ll leave it for this week. Be with you next week as normal.” Tbh- no one has ever expected me to come while the family is there. They all have common sense and leave the house or ask me not to visit that week.

Other people have lives too.

Yep. And I’m very happy to leave them to it. Not sure why you have a problem with that.

But you are absolutely entitled to choose your own clients

Exactly this. I’m self employed. I get to choose the terms under which I will work.

Seriously? Wow. I take it you don’t have clients with school age kids then.

I do indeed.

All those with shocked faces that I would choose not to clean in a house with several children running around- I assume you have never had to clean a house, to a professional standard, whilst other people’s children are there, trailing you around the house, asking you “what’s this? What does this do? Why are doing that? Do you want to see my dinosaurs?” touching your cleaning products!! (I had a one year old baby crawling round the floors after me, pulling sprays out of my caddy!) and basically being under your step every single time you turn around?

@Shmithecat2

YANBU. I don't understand people like that. When I had a cleaner, I'd make myself a cup of tea when they arrived, go upstairs, stay there whilst they cleaned downstairs, then go downstairs when they wanted to clean upstairs. Or be out of the house entirely.

It's not necessarily that easy to move around or just 'be out of the house'; people working at home may have desk set-ups in one particular room or space. Someone in my household, for example, has a sit-stand desk set up in the living room (needed because of incipient back problems), along with a separate monitor and a laptop. It's not just a case of picking up your laptop and going to work in a cafe or library for a bit.

My job is on the phones and I work from home. I am scheduled breaks by our planning team and they can change at short notice. So I would book in a cleaner for say 9-11 knowing my lunch won't be over that time, but I can't control whether they put my break in that two hour slot or not, and they can change the break at no notice anyway. I would need to wee and make a cup of tea on my break and I only have 15 minutes. It's why I don't have a cleaner, even though I have a chronic health condition that means a cleaner would improve my life so much, but I don't want to piss them off. So I struggle instead

@MrsRobbieHart - I am not saying you should ask them to leave - if they don't have the common sense to think they could schedule an outing whilst you are there or give you space to do your job in some other way - then that is their problem - my point was they cannot realistically expect you to be able to do the same amount with more people about potentially getting under your feet.

I am not saying you disagree with others having lives - but my point was more they need to realise that you cannot do what you normally do if there is a houseful. If they are happy e.g. if it were tipping down or DCs don't want to stay in their bedrooms if you are ready for that and you cannot do the job you want - then their lookout . Or they are happy for you not to be there that week.

& yes I think I made it clear that you can absolutely decide on your clients / working environment especially as self employed.

I just think in many cases a little compromise on both sides goes a long way. (& I do not count someone making you feel uncomfortable whilst you do your job counts as a compromise for the avoidance of doubt.)

Here's an e.g. - DS has to sometimes do conference calls / zoom / teams etc round the world. If he can't be bothered to take a flask up when he has started at 5 am well - I don't blame him & if he is hungry / thirsty later on - within reason he ought t be be able to get into his own kitchen - I would expect him to be able to wait 10 mins or use his pat pending kitchen roll foot pads. Give we are lucky enough to have 2 loos I would not expect him ask someone to stop half way through the room because he could not be bothered to go to the other loo.

Enough from me - I think my opinions are clear.
That said if you have a really good cleaner he / she is worth their weight in gold and worth trying to make their life easier where you can.

Pip pip all

I’m not sure that you really know what point you are making tbh @BasiliskStare

God forbid someone makes a tea or goes to the loo in their own home, in a two hour interval when working from home.

The utter bastards. Selfish in the extreme.

How very dare they.

@RedToothBrush

God forbid someone makes a tea or goes to the loo in their own home, in a two hour interval when working from home.

The utter bastards. Selfish in the extreme.

How very dare they.

😂😂😂

I’m one of the shocked faces MrsRobbie

I do understand it’s more difficult to clean with DC there. I do my very best to keep my DC out of our cleaner’s way in the holidays. Ideally we go out, if that’s not possible then I shuffle them to room to room out of her way, and they are never following her around. And if there are bits she can’t do as a result, fine. However I would be very surprised and disappointed if she flat out refused to come. I’d expect a bit more of a “let’s work together on this” approach.

You’re obviously exceptional!

Mmm no. I'm paying you for a service, it's your job to make that work. If I want a drink in my own house that's what I'm going to do. I'll accept if that means it takes you longer or you can't do it all though

I don’t WFH but if I did I would be going about my daily business and doing what I needed where I needed in my own home.

You are probably "lucky" that they aren't purposefully putting you in the position where you find them watching porn and mastibating.

@RedToothBrush

God forbid someone makes a tea or goes to the loo in their own home, in a two hour interval when working from home.

The utter bastards. Selfish in the extreme.

How very dare they.

It’s selfish when there is another toilet available that isn’t in the middle of being cleaned. Maybe read all the OPs posts first before making such a “funny” comment

@CaptainHammer - that is not how I took this - if another loo available - use it - don't ask the cleaner to move out of the bath room he / she is in the middle of cleaning. That would be unreasonable. If only one loo & desperate and not allowed in - quite a different matter. I would expect cleaner to serve notice under the circumstances which may arise but I may question how reasonable people can be.

( Is that too jokey for you )

However I would be very surprised and disappointed if she flat out refused to come.

Disappointed, sure. It’s nice to have your house cleaned. Surprised. Not sure why.

I’d expect a bit more of a “let’s work together on this” approach.

Again, I’m not sure why. She isn’t your friend, she isn’t doing you a favour by cleaning your house. She is a tradesperson providing a service. She is the one who has to deal with knowing she wasn’t able to provide the service she wanted to and is capable of. I have no desire to provide a substandard service to any of my clients and if I think I won’t be able to do an excellent job then I won’t do it. People talk, no matter how much they say “it’s fine” they talk to their friends and say “I thought she might have managed more” or “she seemed to be annoyed the kids were there”. My reputation is how I pay my bills, I’m not interested in compromising that so that one woman can have her house half cleaned during mid term.

You’re obviously exceptional!

I won’t argue with that