To give my cleaner a day off rather than cash gift

[Caneparrot]

Hello, overthinking this situation so opinions appreciated.

I would normally give my cleaner a cash gift for Christmas as well as a small gift - so 1.5-2x the weekly cleaning fee plus some nice chocolates or something. We moved house since last Christmas so this is a new cleaner and I absolutely love her and she is miles better than my old one (but I still gave the old cleaner the above at Christmas).

We have been away for a few weeks so my cleaner has been doing bigger jobs for the past few weeks e.g. fridge, oven, windows etc as there has been no regular weekly clean to do.

I messaged her and said as we still won’t be there this week she could take the day off and I’ll still pay her usual wage as an early Christmas treat (was how I worded it). She messaged back saying thanks will do see you next week.

My question is - should I have just allowed her to come to work, have an easier day and paid her as normal, and then given her the Christmas tip on top of that? I have genuinely run out of things to ask her to do! I’m still planning to give her a gift, bit probably something a bit more than the usual chocolates (thinking voucher for the nice coffee shop nearby as she sometimes turns up with a coffee, and a candle or something?). Or should I still give cash on top? Feel like I’ve made things a bit messy with the day off…but she also has kids and maybe appreciates the extra time to sort out Christmas stuff whilst they’re not off school yet?!

Thanks for your thoughts!

You are paying her as normal and have told her she doesn’t actually need to come and do the work?
That’s a real treat!
Leave it at that and give her a little box of chocs if you want to!

As the day off was exceptional for both of you, due to your absence I wouldn’t even factor it in. If I could afford it I would proceed exactly as normal with cash gift.
That’s if you can afford it.

Sounds like she's got it good as regards cleaning currently for people who aren't there! If she's great I'd give her maybe 1 week's wage. I know we have a somewhat outdated view of cleaners as 'poor' but my colleague has left to go and be a cleaner and gets nearly double per hour what I get paid. Of course, her pay doesn't include holidays and sick pay but she still easily gets paid a lot more than me over a year (which is why she left). In fact, care workers and nursery workers are much worse paid and you probably wouldn't give them a 40.00 Christmas cash present.

A paid day off is awesome!