My cleaner came today and didn't touch the kitchen

[citygal1986]

AIBU to finish her?

She was meant to be here for 4 hours. She charges £15 ph. Last week I paid her for most of this week (assuming she'd do 4hrs as usual) but I was a tenner short. So I left the £10 out for today.

She arrived and said shall I just do 3 hours and then we're square? I thought to myself, I'd actually paid you £5 too much then but let it go.

She turned up about 11:40. After faffing around talking to me and my kids, going through her diary with me for the next few weeks, she started at 12. She text me (I'd left by this point) at 2:10pm to say she was nearly finished and had done everywhere but would blitz the kitchen for me next week as that's the only room not done.

I have 3 children under 5. They'd all just had lunch. Kitchen was fine but I hadn't hoovered up the crumbs off the floor and hadn't wiped over all the surfaces like I'd usually do because I knew she'd be cleaning it. To say I was raging was an understatement.

I got home and when she says she hadn't got to the kitchen, she really means she hadn't done a thing in it.

I went to see my en-suite and dressing room. Mu dressing room tops definitely hadn't been wiped and my en-suite floor, shower and bath hadn't been touched.

I messaged her back to say sorry perhaps I should have said (?!) but the kitchen is a priority over anywhere else. I asked if she had time to do my bathroom and dressing room to see what she said. She replied with a yes done everywhere else just not your kitchen and I'll do that next week.

A few hours later she text to say maybe I should stay for my usual 4 and not 3 because clearly 3 isn't enough.

Wtf! Firstly three was definitely enough. Secondly which cleaner leaves the kitchen of all places

How would you respond and WWYD?!

Her pay wasn't short. She overpaid last week bar £10 for this weeks clean and gave her the rest this week.

I'm quite surprised so many posters have misread this part of the OPs post and latched onto it.

Get a different cleaner.

You need a fresh start

Don’t be ridiculous. She overpaid last week to cover most of this week, and then paid the rest this week. How is this disrespectful?

@citygal1986 you need a better cleaner. The hours aren’t right, the quality of cleaning isn’t right. Just get another one, it will improve your life.

So?

She sounds unprofessional. Get rid, text her now,

She’s a crap and lazy cleaner. Get her gone. My cleaner is incredible. Works like an absolute train, always stays over the time (I can see on our gates when she comes and goes) and would never ask for more so I always bonus her.

Find someone better who isn’t actually adding to your stresses.

I’d get rid too. She’s not doing what you’re paying for. I’d just send a text saying that you don’t feel the arrangements are working out, and please can she drop off the key as you’ve decided to cancel the service.

Find a new cleaner

Wish people would read an OP properly!
I would find someone else OP, she is clearly taking the piss.

I think there is some confusion over money and she left the kitchen because she thinks you have short changed her somewhere. I am baffled as to why you paid for one week and prepaid the next week apart from the last £10. Why wouldn’t you just pay each week at a time, or pay in full.

I do think kitchen and bathrooms should be prioritised but I also am inclined to think this was caused by confusion over money and maybe you can give it another chance.

For those struggling with the money thing:

Last week, OP paid the useless cleaner 183% of her pay.

The 83% covered her pay for this week too. The shortfall of which was left out this week.

At no point was the cleaner mugged off or underpaid. She didn’t work the full four hours this week (nothing like). She has been overpaid.

She’s a shit, lazy cleaner.

I’m a cleaner, never understand how it takes cleaners 4 hours to do a simple house. I can get round a 3 bed, 3 bathroom in 2 hours. Never had a complaint yet. Constantly told by my clients they don’t know what they would do without me.

I honestly think some cleaners take the absolute piss.

*Took 20 mins to start then left early.
*missed kitchen, clearly one of the most important areas.
*ensuite etc not wiped when she said she did.
*short changed you £5 while saying she would cut an hour off to make it even.

For any one of these I would be annoyed but give a second chance but not altogether definitely time for a new cleaner.

Do you really need to ask? get a better cleaner.
The only thing I would say is - how many bathrooms / toilets / vacuuming are you expecting her to do in that time? these jobs can be time consuming.

Tell her not to come back. My cleaner does 3 hours a week and starts with the kitchen every time. Her routine is that she always does all of the downstairs, the bathroom upstairs, and then whatever else she has time for, rotating cleaning the rooms dependent on who is at home and how long it was since they were last done.

Cleaner's math skills are clearly as good as some of the people on this thread.

She did 2.5 hours this week instead of 3 and, according to her, only didn't get to the kitchen. So why does she need 4 hours?

I'd point that out and say she can do 3 hours next week, the priorities are kitchen and bathrooms and xyz rooms.

And then see how good a job she does. If it's not how you want it, then drop her.

And you need to read the OP's posts again properly. The cleaner is paid £60 cash each week. Last week the OP paid the cleaner £115 to cover that week and almost all of the work this week. So the cleaner had already been paid for this week except for £5. And when she arrived yesterday there was an extra £10 waiting for her, because OP didn't have a fiver. So the cleaner left yesterday without doing the kitchen or en suite after being paid £65.

It's not on, OP. Once any employee has started so blatantly to let things slide you're unlikely ever to get them back on track. Look for a new cleaner and then be really clear about your priorities. Kitchen and bathrooms first, then other rooms in descending order of priority.

I'd cancel her services.
We used to have a fantastic cleaner, but over the years her standards slipped. Now I just do a half arsed free job myself. Get a robohoover that cuts some of it out.

Every time I've tried to get a cleaner they've pulled a similar trick, I've given up trying to find a reputable cleaner who actually stays and does the work they've been paid to do now.

I'd get rid and find a new one

Over the years I’ve had a few cleaners. Only one was good ant cleaning and trustworthy. It’s really hard to find a reliable goid cleaner and often they’ll start out ok and by the third visit it all goes wrong

Sorry typos …..have a baby grabbing my phone

I'd get a new cleaner and not worry about it.

She may not have had the right money, but she overpaid her, not underpaid her. And the instructions are pretty clear imo, £15 an hour for 4 hours work, which should have been plenty to do the entire house. And even if you factor in the time spent chatting, she still left an hour and a half early which she’d been paid for. Blatant piss taker

I had the most amazing cleaner when my fc were very small. Plus she used to babysit and when I'd get home I'd discover she's used the time they were asleep to do all the ironing or other such job! Loved that woman. We moved away for DH's job and I've never been able to find as good a cleaner since.

But what I have found is that most of them are people who struggled at school and perhaps have a level of learning difficulties. What seems simple to me (and OP in this case) with the maths of having prepaid, but not quite enough for two sessions, then topping that up, is not so easy for them. It might be that this cleaner is feeling short changed and pissed off herself which is why she did a crap job this time.

If the facts her standards have slipped is something you have been noticing for a while, not just this week, then I would bin her. If it was just this week then I would give her the benefit of the doubt but just be clear that next week she should start with kitchen and bathrooms and go from there. And if anything is left out it should be X. I reckon she was silently fuming at you because she has made a mistake in her maths