To expect the cleaner to clean for the time she’s paid?

[Annatinks]

Hubby and I both work full time (my hours exceed full time vastly - my choice) We have a two year old son and a late teen who has MH struggles.

Whilst we’ve always tried to be tidy, I’ve been constantly frustrated by the deep cleaning things taking the minimal free time I get and how tired I always am (autoimmune disease). My husband is good at general tidy but doesn’t really notice things like skirting boards, glass cleaning, light shades, door handles etc.

When he was promoted recently with a small but noticeable pay rise he spoke to me about the idea of employing a cleaner to do those deep clean things fortnightly and to mop/hoover etc so on the day before/day of/day after we have a bit more family downtime. I was quite negative about it because of feeling like “we’re not that kind of people” but then feeling horribly judgemental and saying yes we’d try it.

The cleaner is amazing 🤩
She came and had a look round visit and suggested things she could do in the two hours she proposed she comes each fortnight. She polishes the taps so they look new and her hoover is soooo much better than ours!

But…

She’s only been 4 times and last fortnight she left arrived late and left early (about 20min less time). Hubby said a mild “oh are you off already?” (I wasn’t there, he WFH) and she explained how yes she’s got to know our 2bed house better now so it doesn’t take her as long. She then made some comment about having to drop some clients before because they didn’t understand that.

Is this normal? Should a cleaner who quotes two hours and is paid two hours be able to knock off early regularly?
Neither of us get to knock off early for efficiency so it seems unreasonable to me?

Hubny wants to cancel her because he feels like she’s going to take the Mickey ongoing but I’ve appreciated the help soooo much I’m reluctant for it to stop.

Yeah. I’d probably say to her that’s not the deal. The deal is she cleans for two hours. If she doesn’t like then feel free to leave you like she has the others!

She's taking the absolute piss. If you get paid for two hours, you work for two hours.

Yes that's not on. There's always something that needs cleaning. If she's finished early she should clean something else. You are paying for her time. Assuming she has quoted her rates as per hour and not as "I'll do this list of jobs for this amount of money regardless of how long it takes".

Honestly I personally wouldn’t cancel an excellent cleaner over twenty minutes, the quality of what they did do is what is important.

There is always something to clean in a house. You are paying for two hours cleaning time. Not a certain number of items/areas to clean.

You could write a list of things that can be done eg strip and remake a bed, clean the microwave, wash window. Ask her to add those in if she runs out of things to clean in the two hours . It’s totally reasonable.

I'd be finding her another job to do in those 20mins or docking her pay by 1/6th.

She can't have it both ways.

Is there anything else you actually want her to do? Could you tell her you'd prefer to engage her on a specific-tasks basis to do x, y, z tasks regardless of time, for the price of 2 hours of her current rate, and then if it ends up taking longer, then she also has to suck it up?

Mine did that. I said Oh! but in that case could you clean one shelf of the fridge please? Actually worked over the time - not what I wanted.
Have other places you'd like help in and ask them to do that if they've finished early. No need to be grumpy

Thanks for the responses so far.

She’s due tomorrow and I’m actually WFH too so I might drop an offhand ask and see what she does. Hubby is very gentle and mild mannered so I wonder if she’s just trying her luck?

For those who have employed a cleaner, how should it work? He found her on Facebook and she has a business page but there’s been no contract or written agreements so if he does decide to cancel we don’t know what our reasonable obligations are?

I have a cleaner for 2 hours every fortnight, and sometimes if I'm at home we get chatting, and she doesn't even charge me for the chatting time. So she might be here for 2.5 hours but she only bills me for 2 hours.

Your cleaner is taking the mickey. BUT good cleaners are hard to come by so think carefully if you decide to give her notice.

I would give her a couple of extra tasks like
Cleaning the windows or defrosting the fridge ' if you have time after you've done the usual clean' which implies she will have time.

My view, as someone who once did cleaning at a small hotel, is that there is a list of stuff a cleaner has to get through, and the more often you do it the quicker you become. I'm sure you'd rather she didn't dawdle while doing the essential stuff. I don't see the issue in leaving early if she's done the stuff.

If the house is still filthy then that's a different question, but you don't need her polishing the silverware for ten minutes at the end of her shift.

My cleaner always done this too and I feel awkward if I don't pay her a little bit more but she always tells me not to as it was her who was being chatty (true!)

My parents had a cleaner (when I was an adult) and when I stayed at my parents house while the cleaner was there I'm pretty sure the cleaner was basically pretending to clean for some of her shift! Two hours is a long time....

You need to perhaps say can you do the bins or do the dusting on the whatevers or very specific things rather than just let her leave 20 mins early.

Hmm our cleaner is amazing (truly) and does finish 10-15 or so mins early relatively regularly. I kind of see it as paying for the service rather than specific hours - we had a cleaner before her who always did exactly two hours but got far less done (and far less well) in that time than our current cleaner. I do sometimes ask her to do 'extras' like cleaning out the oven or the fridge which she happily does but won't necessarily do stuff like that automatically to fill the last 10-15 mins provided everything else is done.

I'm happy with the current situation but if you're not, maybe just suggest some extras to do when she has time (could also include eg organising and cleaning inside cupboards, cleaning the inside of windows, folding laundry etc?).

It depends did she wuote you an hourly rate or the total for the job? More and more cleaners are quoting for job and finish. Personally i hate this as it opens it up to abuse. We just got rid of a cleaner who said after experimenting with our house (also know as skiving off early from the 3 hours she was paid for months!). She could do it in around 2 hours and for that it would be £50. I politely told her where to go. £25 an hour is ridiculous and she was majorly cutting corners in that.

If the cleaner quoted for the jobs you asked and said its x amount and it would take around 2 hours I think you let it go. If she quotes x amount per hour i'd chuck some extra jobs on to do.

I 'know my house' very well, but it still takes me the same amount of time to hoover and mop the kitchen floor as it ever did! She's being a CF.

Did you book her for 2 hours and she agreed to what could be done in the 2 hours? Or did you agree to set jobs?

Reading your post she proposed 2 hours a fortnight and this is what can be done. She is doing what you agreed to, so you are paying for what you agreed to pay for. But did she say I charge x amount an hour, or I am charging you x amount for the jobs I've agreed to do?

This 👆

I would either work out how much less to pay based on the reduced hours, or better still per the quoted comment give a list of other stuff to fill the time.

I can just imagine the face of any of my previous employers in the corporate world if I said "I've done my work now, I'm going home" 🤣

As someone who used to work as a cleaner, rubbish! As a domestic cleaver you should do the time you are being paid for and find extra jobs to do if you finish early. There's always something to do! Clean light switches, dust lampshades, clean skirtings, wipe down cupboards. If you are being paid by the hour then you fill up your time.

Cleaner, not cleaver, obviously.

I write a very long list in order of importance and our cleaners work through it in that order. They are clear that they won’t get through it all but it means there’s a very clear expectation that it’s not a “task-based” engagement, it’s time focussed They would not be finishing 20 minutes early - they are paid per hour and work to the hour give or take a few minutes. Jobs toward the end of the list include ironing (always a huge pile on the go), polishing mirrors, polishing silver picture frames, cleaning fridge shelves, door knobs, light switches, indoor windows etc. we have two separate ladies, each once a week for 5 hours apiece. Neither have ever left early.

I'm a cleaner who sometimes leaves a job 10ish minutes early if I've finished. However! On the days it takes longer and I don't get everything finished within the time, I stay until it is done. Sometimes an extra 20-30 minutes and I don't bill my client for it.

No one has ever complained or dropped me for it, but I would expect them to if I was only leaving early and not staying longer.

If she is a good cleaner and you are happy, you could just think of it as a tip/pay her only for 1 hour 40. You could have a list of 10-20 minute jobs you can ask her to do if she has time left over. Or just look for another cleaner.

This could be looked at 2 ways:
A) client has a specific list of tasks to be completed, cleaner quotes for those tasks and says it’s around X hours.
B) client employs a cleaner for X hours and asks them to complete as much as they can from a list of tasks in that time.
Id be happy with A as long as the standard of cleanliness is high, but I’d also be happy with B as long as the cleaner wasn’t being purposely slow to fill the time.

If she's taking the piss already it will only get worse - within six months she'll be doing an hour and you'll be paying for two. She is paid by the hour (not by the job) and should therefore do the time or you should find another cleaner.