WIBU to install a ring doorbell for our cleaner

[Itsnotraining]

I noticed that our cleaner had left (at least 10 mins, but could have Been more) early last week.

She was also an hour late arriving yesterday. (I didn’t note what time she left, as I had left for work by then, so she could have stayed her allotted 2 hours, but usually the agreement is set times)

WIBU to get a ring doorbell for the purpose to be able to see when she’s arriving/leaving?

I don’t mind if she is doing her 2 hours and whatever time she chooses to come. But just that those 2 hours are done.

Its not a case that there wasn’t anything left to do, as there is always stuff to do (large house)

We do already have a small security camera on the garage. But it’s not very sensitive. I am not planning to spy, just to check she arrives and leaves her hours.

You clearly don’t trust her. Otherwise you’d just ask her like a normal adult. And if you don’t trust her, why are you employing her?

I'd get one.
Wish my mum had one.

I hired a cleaner for 1.5 hours per week.
She was asked to change my mum's bed. Put bed linen in the washing machine, clean bathroom and lightly dust and mop the kitchen floor. My mum lives in a small one bed flat. Tiny bathroom and tiny kitchen.

My mum eventually told me that the cleaner wiped the bathroom floor with the same cloth, not rinsed , and wipe her sofa and chair.
Whenever I visited, the bathroom was grimey.
Kitchen wasn't clean.
She often just shook the duvet then just put it back on the unchanged bed.
Dusting never got done.
All done in less than an hour.

This cleaner spent much time on her mobile phone. While sitting on my mums bed.

We had to sack her.
She never spent an hour , let alone 1.5 hours .
A Ring doorbell would have helped in our complaint.

Do some of you understand what a ring doorbell is? It's a doorbell that films people coming to the house and leaving. It's not covert. It's not sneaky. The police actually are advising people to install them for safety. They aren't inside cameras filming the cleaner at work without permission. Definitely get one op, they are good to have regardless of cleaner or no cleaner.

But she’s only installing it to check up on the cleaner. Sneaky IMO.

Bloody hell, have you never left work 10 mins early for any reason

What do you do if you install the doorbell and things don't change? Or you install the doorbell and the cleaner stays longer but doesn't do any additional tasks in the 10 minutes?

Do they? How bizarre.

I'm a cleaner and it's not because I'm too thick to do any other jobs, it's because I need a stress-free job, out of an office, away from the drama of colleagues that fits in with school and wanted to do something I enjoy. Cleaning ticks all of those requirements.

My previous role running an office was so ridiculously stressful, I wouldn't go back regardless of the better pay (luckily our household income allows for this).

Thankfully none of my customers treat me like I'm thick as mince.

Several houses do have cameras and I'm OK with that because ultimately it proves my innocence should anything go astray or any damage happen.

This happened to me with one of my first clients.

I moved the floor heater and there was a £50 note (probably fake, I've no idea) folded underneath it.

I immediately phoned my then-boss and reported it to her and asked her to inform the client that I had put it safely away in a cupboard.

I was fuming.

I wouldn't have been so disgusted if it weren't for the fact they were clearly drug dealers, had machetes and baseball bats secreted all around the house as well as cameras everywhere. I always cleaned to a high standard so I couldn't understand why they'd try to trap me.

I left after a month, I was always terrified the police would raid the place or a rival dealer would think I was involved (elaborate anxiety catastrophising by me! 😂).

You say there is always more to do. That implies you haven't properly set out what you expect to be achieved in the time for the price?

I used to clean. You have an expected set of jobs and an expected amount of time to do them in. Often there's an agreement that should you find yourself with extra time, (as opposed to working intentionally at breakneck speed) there's always extras you could do.

If I needed to finish earlier than normal, I'd break my back to work really hard and fast at the same quality as normal to be able to go earlier.

It wasn't a level that a client could reasonably expect at an hourly rate, and I|'d have reconsidered working for anyone who was more interested in the time spent over the quality of the cleaning.

I did have clients who just paid by time spent and asked me to do what I thought needed doing most. I'd lay out my routine set of tasks to them, and then do whatever else would clearly improve the quality of their home/life. (they were all people who had let things build up)

I'd trust my clients to judge me by the amount of work achieved and it's quality. If you don't feel your cleaner does a good job and don't trust her, just be decent and let her go.

Lots of workplaces ask staff to swipe in and out which enables monitoring of timekeeping. I wouldn't have cameras inside the house but I don't see any issue with a ring doorbell to enable you to check your cleaners is keeping the hours you pay for.

I would have left there and then

@Maydaze. Yes they do - and I’m a cleaner and highly qualified. So attempts like @Summerwheredidyougo describe really make me angry. We are treated with so much disrespect by so many clients.

I'm so lucky with my set of clients, none of them treat me badly and I am made to feel welcome and valued.

There have been a couple that I didn't gel with and it was always because they saw me as beneath them. One of them spoke to me like she was Alan Sugar and I was on the apprentice! and I could get nothing right - even though the rest of my clients sing my praises. So in the end I respectfully suggested she find another cleaner and left.

@MayDaze. I have had clients hide used tampons under sanitary bins, in an attempt
to try and ‘catch me out’. Another got a step ladder out and out on white gloves - to prove I hadn’t dusted the ceiling lights. She was sooo mad to discover not one mote of dust. My Area manager (who had been yelled at by the customer) just laughed
at her. As for the hiding money in plain sight - I would be able to retire! Maybe I will write a book?!

No I’ve never left 10 mins early from work. Not without clearing it with my boss- the person who pays me. That just doesn’t sit right with me. Over a month, that’s 80 mins. That’s over an hour of work I am paying for and not receiving.

A Ring Door bell is a doorbell that detects movement. So when someone arrives/leaves the house/postman has a delivery, it detects this. It isn’t a spy camera (as I mentioned in my post)

Thank you for your help. I think I will get a doorbell and also speak with her/start writing lists.

If I didn't trust someone, I wouldn't want them working in my house when I wasn't there.

As PP suggested, what's the point of monitoring when there coming in and out, they could be on a "go slow" or spend half an hour drinking coffee and still "clock in and out" at the appointed times?

Are you paying her an hourly rate or by the job? If you discussed what you wanted done at the start and she said that will be about 2 hours then I think it's the job you're paying for and not by the hour.

I think it's a spy camera when you're getting one specifically to monitor someone you don't consider trustworthy.

I couldn't get wound about 10 mins to be honest, if they were only staying for an hour instead of two then I'd say something

Paying per hour, not for the job.

She has other responsibilities too like watering the plants, washing etc. (she is more than a cleaner of course. And she has been wonderful help to us in the last year and I really couldn’t be without her.)

@Babyvenusplant 10 mins a day is 80 mins a month.
960 mins a year (16 hours). So that’s a 16 hour bonus someone is taking.
Thats 1 whole month of fees…

Thats like getting a months bonus at the end of the year. It’s a lot of money when it’s relative.

Or you can get a house alarm and look at the time she came in and went out.

If you actually want to keep her, (even though you feel she's effectively stealing)
you'd be better off working out what you reasonably want done in that time frame and agreeing it with her.
Then you can see at a glance if you're getting the agreed quantity and quality of work for the price, rather than both of you clock watching, with you fearful that she might be getting paid for work she's not done if you don't.