To sack cleaner for this?

[Katrinawaves]

My husband and I had a mix up today and both left cash out to pay the cleaner. She has taken both lots of cash so double her normal payment for the day. Would I be unreasonable to sack her for this? My husband is saying we should just not pay her next week but I am concerned now about her honesty. What would you do?

If that’s what you want to do with your spare time:) enjoy x

🤣🤣🤣 I like it

Ok , if I saw 2 lots of money next to one another and I knew it was going to be £50 that I was paid every week ! I would definitely only take 1 lot . You do not forget , no matter how busy you are cleaning ! And incidentally I only ever take my money when I have finished the job . However most people pay by bank transfer now which makes it easier although that can be problematic in itself as clients do forget. We all have busy lives but she would have known that was never a bonus ! I think in future if you do have her return you need to put it in an envelope and make it clear on the envelope that it is £50 enclosed with her name on it . I know that is extra thing to remember ,however in this case , it saves on confusion and the you know the payment is there ready for her to pick up and if any other money goes missing you sadly have your answer.

I agree think bank transfer best. Always an audit trail but consider doing it yourself if you WFH as a suggestion as would save £ and you don’t need to trust anyone:) plus exercise, great calorie burn. We have a very big house and I love cleaning ours but that’s me:))

Is it a full moon or something? There are some right weird-arse arguments on here tonight.

I used to be a gardener for years and was paid in cash.

You only take your money just as you're leaving. That way, there's never any confusion about whether you "picked it up earlier". I can't imagine forgetting you'd picked up some money a few hours earlier though, who forgets picking up and pocketing money in someone else's house?!

Cleaner does need speaking to about it, but I would want to let her go after the next (unpaid) week. And if she denied picking up extra money I wouldn't have her back in my house at all.

Maybe she thought that you were paying her for two weeks .

Depending on how much you value her I would probably not sack her

. I would explain to her about the mix up of the two amounts of money being left and then say that it is her wages for two weeks .

I must say if I was the cleaner I would have contacted you first before taking two lots of money .

Don’t agree at all.

I think YTA for jumping straight to sacking her before even having a conversation about it tbh.

Maybe she thought you were paying in advance for next week because you weren't going to be there. Tell her it was a mix up and that's for next week too. How did you both leave money out without seeing the other amount there?

You are actually paying someone cash? Actually shocked - obviously she may well be paying her Taxes but sounds like both of you are dishonest … you can’t claim someone is dishonest when you are part of the ‘cash’ culture… picking and choosing from a moral high ground

Hi all, we've had lots of reports about this thread so we are going to close it for now whilst we take a look behind the scenes. Sorry to interrupt!

God knows what she thought, perhaps ask before going straight to sacking? Do you definitely know she’s taken two payments?? As stated previously it would be much easier to have electronic payments or a standing order to avoid any confusion on both sides

Think I would text ' what are we like, we both paid you today! Sorry for confusion, just treat one as advance payment for next week'

Maybe, just maybe, she forgot about the original payment by the DH so when the money was put out at the end of the shift, she took it whilst being on auto pilot. I would be inclined to assume this and then message her just saying - ‘Gosh, think there has been a mix up today and we paid you twice! Keep the over payment and it’ll cover next week too!’ Then see how it goes. I wouldn’t sack her… but it would make me a little more cautious in future depending on her reply.

But she didn't see two lots of money.

She possibly saw ONE lot of money when they OP put a £50 note on the side table.

The OP's DH says he also left a £50 on the side table, which obviously wasn't there when the OP put down another, she assumes the DH is not mistaken or fibbing, and thus the cleaner took one note and later, took the other.

Who knows if the DH did put it there. Who knows if it wasn't blown off the side table and is now down the back of the radiator. Who knows if the cleaner picked it up, then saw later on that there was still a £50 note on the side table, and picked it up again.

If she picks up money from counters and side tables multiple times a day, most days of the week, it is easy to have a memory slip like that - ask anyone who does something like that every day, because you don't know all the time if you're remembering that days action or the previous days action..

The obvious thing to do is communicate with one another, something MumsNetters seem loathe to do!

Just be honest with her without accusing her of anything. That both of you left money by accident and so she's been paid for this week too. No question in your voice.

After further thought, I can't help but feel that this was not an error, but a trap set, testing your cleaner and she failed?

Yes you should sack her and do it all yourself.

Cleaning is good for the soul, particularly humility.

This is a baity thread I don't believe the OP