To ask cleaner to change time?

[LeatherSkirt82]

We have had the same cleaner for almost 2y. She works for an agency so all communication is via her supervisor (I assume because she barely speaks English). She comes once per week for 5.5h and her start time is 11am. This start time was proposed by her supervisor because she has another client before us. The rate is £14/h so £77 for 5.5h she spends in our home. We always, without an exception, pay £80 and we give her 2w extra pay for Christmas. She cleans with our materials and she spends the last hour ironing. The hours were proposed by her supervisor on the basis of the work expected - we were happy to go with her assessment and are generally happy with the quality of service.

The problem is - she's NEVER on time. At first I didn't make too much fuss because I thought it could happen to anyone to be late, but now it has been 4w in a row that she was 15-20 mins late. The main issue with this is - I work from home and I plan my meetings around her start/end time. So every time she's late - I have to reschedule my meetings and it doesn't look great.

Today I asked her supervisor to agree to a different time - I said I was happy if she would prefer to start at noon but that whatever time we agree I need to know she'll keep to it. The answer was that she can't start later because she works until 5 and if she starts at noon she'd finish at 5.30. However, with her never being on time and leaving at her agreed time (4.30pm) she works 15-20+ mins less every week so I don't really feel this is fair.

Am I BU or not?

You need to complain to the supervisor every time she’s late if you’d prefer to keep her.

Tell them you won’t pay for time that the cleaner isnt there and deduct money from what to pay them.

Only pay for the time worked. If this does not make her change then get another cleaner

If you're paying an agency she won't see that extra out of £80 or the two weeks holiday unless she can - language permitting - confirm that she does get it.

Just say you will only pay for 5 hours then

Reduce to 5 hours? Or don’t pay for the time she’s late and not actually working? Could she let herself in so you don’t need to reschedule meetings?

Obviously YANBU to think you should expect her to turn up on time and work the hours she’s paid for.

I think you just need to keep complaining about the lateness. Don’t mess around with the pay.

Ask the agency if they can find you someone else.

I have a cleaning business.

The only time we can guarantee an arrival time is for the client to be the first one of the day.

However if we’re ever late, the client still gets the same clean. But then, we charge per clean not per hour.

If you’re paying hourly, you should get the time you pay for.
I would either:
a) Ask to reduce time to 5hr as that’s what you’re currently getting but be prepared for the cleaner to potentially leave areas she doesn’t have time to do!!!

b) see if you can move to the first clean of the day

c) don’t have your office cleaned so you’re not interrupted by her arrival/departure times. This could work well with reducing to 5hrs too, as she’ll have one rooms less to deal with.

I don't get the link between her arrival time and you having to reschedule meetings. That seems to be the main stress point, so it might be better for your sanity to address it. Can't you just say "excuse me a moment" and quickly let her in if you're in a meeting?

Thanks everyone for advice and opinions. To answer some of the questions:

1. the holiday bonus we give in cash with a card, everything else is paid via agency. You’re right I shouldn’t have assumed that she gets extras. I assumed agency would take some but it didn’t even cross my mind that she wouldn’t see any of it.

2. I asked to be the first clean of the day but that was not possible- any day of the week.

3. she never cleans my office - the upset is with interrupting my meetings to let her in. And yes - this is the main stressor for me - my job is very full on and my meetings are one on one or small teams. I can excuse myself once or twice but not every time. I also don’t have much wiggle room to reschedule or move things around due to different time zones of team members.

i spoke today with the person from the agency and was told that she gets ‘a lot of ironing in the previous house where she does 2h so she has been staying a bit
longer to finish everything. I explained what the pain point was for me and offered to look for another day or have her start at noon but on 5h if 5pm is cutoff time. Supervisor did not seem keen to lose that half an hour and said they’d have to talk to the previous client re: workload and they’ll handle it on that side. I guess I’m now waiting to hear from them.

I don’t really want to look for someone else as I’m happy with the cleaning and ironing once she’s here. I also don’t want to be too big a pain but at the same time l really do need the starting hours observed.

Supervisor did not seem keen to lose that half an hour I'd give them a chance to sort it and if in two weeks time it's still a problem then tske 30 mins less or fire the cleaner