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.

Don’t be ridiculous! She said that the toothpaste sprays because her son switches on he brush before it goes in his mouth! No saliva involved but even if there were, of course cleaning toothpaste stains is part of the bathroom clean.

OP just politely point out the jobs that she’s missed that you’d like her to do. Don’t link it to time spent, see what she says..

My cleaner often forgets to do inside microwave. I usually say “ oh I had something a bit messy in there this week, do you mind?” And make out it’s my fault. He’s never complained about being asked.

Our cleaner does 3 hours a time. To be honest sometimes it’s less and she’ll leave 15 minutes early, but only if everything is completed. I don’t because equally she does more time when needed and in the grand scheme of things it balances out. Over Christmas for example she did an oven spruce and didn’t charge extra, or something will do all the windows and stay and extra 30 mins. She’s a good cleaner (hard to find) and I’m happy it all balances in the end.

I can't for the life of me understand why cleaning is paid according to time in the UK.

Surely the better way of arranging the work/ payment agreement is to have a list of tasks that need to be done, and pay by task?

It surely makes sense that once the built up grime from, for example, skirting boards or bathroom tiles is dealt with in the initial cleanings, the cleaner will require less time to clean as there simply won't be as much dirt stuck on the surfaces she cleans?

Once the initial deep cleaning is done, regular maintenance cleaning takes less time.

Do you want her to stand there polishing the taps for twenty minutes even though everything she was expected to clean is clean?

I would expect the microwave to be cleaned two-weekly and definitely the toothpaste spray.

I would make a list of things that have been missed and ask her to add them in plus other things like wiping out the fridge, if it pushes her over 2 hours then cut some things back or renegotiate the rate/hours.

Agree you need to pull her up on it. I made the same mistake. At first they left 10 mins early and in the end 30 mins was standard. I was a complete mug and her cleaning wasn't thorough enough to just say 'shes doing a very good job and I don't care it takes her less than 2 hours'.

She also messed me around quite a bit, which also got worse overtime. She thought she could move around her slot to whatever time suited her at short notice. Always an excuse to do with family. I had enough when she decided she wanted to come a different time (not day) because of her adult sons birthday. I finally told her I have a work schedule with prearranged meetings and I couldn't keep accommodating her family at a whim. That day she fired me by text because I had apparently disrespected her family.

My current cleaner is amazing and I do not care at all if she leaves 10 mins early because not once has she taken the piss and my home is absolutely shiny.

The fact that yours says she had to drop clients because of it is a red flag and she knows it's an issue.

I commented on a similar thread recently
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4733876-to-be-annoyed-at-cleaner-leaving-early?page=1

My cleaner was leaving early and the finish wasn't amazing so we are looking for someone new. I want to pay by the hour and get the time I'm paying for, if my job gets easier/more efficient because I create a spreadsheet or database I can't just finish early, I do more or move to another task. If a cleaning job gets easier because the room has been cleaned more regularly in the time that I'm paying for it to be cleaned, then I'd prefer the cleaner to do something else in the remaining time.
My previous cleaner used to wipe down the bin or empty the hoover or wipe inside the fridge or whatever, she was a also happy to fold laundry but we moved house too far away.

either suggest that she comes for an hour and a half, or as suggested by a PP, provide a reserve list of tasks she can move on to if she finishes early.
20 minutes is quite a large chunk out of 120 minutes.

If my cleaner finishes early, she finds things to do or tells me to pay less. I never do, in fact I over pay because I think she charges too little and she is great.

Coming home to vacuumed stairs makes me so incredibly happy.

Things she done extra include folding washing, taking everything from the top of the cupboards and cleaning them, the windows, carpet/sofa washing.

I am so very lucky!

As far as I’m concerned I’m paying for a clean house. As long as it’s done thoroughly and to the standard I want I don’t care how long it takes.

This is how I see it too.

I think you didn’t set the right expectations from the start. Did you or your husband say to her that you expect the inside of the microwave to be cleaned? Maybe get a list of tasks ready for her next visit and see how she responds

a flat that it only cleaned fortnightly by a cleaner takes at least 2 hours if not more.
my cleaner has things on rotation… windows, oven, skirting boards etc on top of the normal clean.
no way is she getting properly through the flat in less time. So I would chat with her… you need her to stay for 2 hours and could she do the ironing in the rest of the time…you might find that all of a sudden it does take 2 hours.
i suspect clients dropped her rather than the other way…
my cleaner sometimes leaves a bit early. She tells me when she needs to do that. And more than makes up for it at other times. But…. She has been with me for over 12 years and is amazing and trustworthy . I’ve let others go who didn’t do a thorough job, and you could always tell when they left early, because corners were cut.

I pay my cleaner for the job done not the time. As long as they clean the bathrooms, mop the floors and vacuum I don't care how long it takes them.

In your situation if she does a great job I wouldn't mind.

I am visually impaired, and had one cleaner about a month ago come in, ask me where my money was, then start, asking me very, very personal questions, including what kind of sex did my boyfriend have with me, when I had a boyfriend, and then she wanted to take on a side job as my carer which I don’t really need or want, and especially if she had wanted more money than the university students from the special education university that I did have. She was also being very very over friendly, which was making me very suspicious. So I asked her one day on her third visit, how long it would take her to clean one of the bedrooms, the kitchen and the bathroom, keep in mind I don’t live in a mansion, she told me three hours… I told her absolutely not, you only have two hours, I paid her, more than I should have, and got rid of her. just because I don’t see, it doesn’t mean I don’t know when somebody is taking the Mickey…

I just want somebody to come and clean, not chat for a long time or take long breaks, but I live in a small town in Greece, and there is no local cleaning service that I can find. So for now, I’m just doing the cleaning on my own. I would rather do my own thing, I’d be happy than have to worry about what someone else is getting up to, or not doing, in my home.

We do, daily, it’s not bodily fluids - its what sprays before it ever touched his mouth because he’s two and learning to be independent

Fyi, dentists advise that parents brush children's teeth until well into childhood. Children can learn self care in other areas - teeth are too important to leave them to toddlers to brush properly.

Presumably there is some residual body fluid left from the previous brushing on the toothbrush?

How is the cleaner to know how the splattered toothpaste got onto the soap dispenser? How is she to know that the toothpaste sprayed onto the soap dispenser didn't come from your mouth or your husband's and that you didn't spit it out and miss the sink?

In principle she’s taking the piss but in practice… genuinely great cleaners are like gold dust. If she does the job to a high standard I’d probably suck it up.

@mathanxiety
We do both, he has turns while we brush ours then we “get the bits he’s missed” or “check they’re shiny” with us cleaning them. Fair points on how they wouldn’t necessarily know that but surely it’s no different from cleaning the sink that people have undoubtedly spat in? Tbf, it looks visually more like soap splatter, it’s just I see it happen so know it can be toothpaste

Cleaner here…sometimes I finish earlier than the allotted time so I either try and find some other things to do or if the house is clean I text them and tell them I finished say 10 minutes earlier and to knock a couple of quid off what they would normally pay me.

She’s taking the piss.

We tell our cleaner that as long as the job is done, and done well, if it doesn't take the full two hours, no biggie :).

We had a cleaner that we paid for two hours and we sacked her because she'd lose the bathroom door and sit on the toilet for half an hour to kill the time AND didn't do a good job.

Surely in two hours a fortnight, there is plenty that can be done to fill that time?

Just doing the normal kitchen, bathroom, surface dusting and vacuuming will take a good part of that time, leaving little leftover to tackle 'skirting boards, glass cleaning, light shades, door handles' and all the other things like windows, light switches, door frames, inside cupboards etc etc on rotation.

I've sacked multiple cleaners for this, combined with not actually cleaning very well either! I've given up on having one because it's more stress than it's worth. No house is clean in 2 hours, if you have done the core jobs in an hour and 40 minutes then you either haven't done it particularly well or more likely you haven't moved the sofas, chairs or mats, haven't cleaned the shower head, wipe the windows or skirting boards etc in rotation, one room each time and so on ... I had a cleaner like this once, one that thought how can I help my clients, she was amazing then she quit due to injury and I still miss her! If you pay for two hours you should get 2 hours

Good cleaners are like gold dust (where I am anyway) If she's done what you asked what's the problem? Ask her to do other things to make up the time?

When DH and I both worked full time we had a cleaner for 5 hours each week (she also did the ironing). I’d say she routinely finished half an hour early every week but she’d always done all the cleaning and ironing so I saw it as a weekly bonus for efficiency. She was with us for over 5 years and we couldn’t have managed without her.

Is the sink coated in toothpaste splatter? Or do you rinse it after use?