To tell my cleaner to stop wearing perfume?

[LeMoax]

We have a cleaner that comes once a week for four hours. We’ve used the same cleaning company for a while but recently they’ve chopped and changed the staff, so after a period of different people each week it seems we’ve now settled on someone regularly.
She cleans okay but wears really strong perfume. So strong that after she goes I need to leave all the windows in the house open for a good hour or so to get rid of her smell.

AIBU to ask her or her boss to ask her to stop wearing the perfume before coming to our house?

Do your own gardening, painting, car washing, cooking etc Millions out of work by the end of the day !

Yes , you are perfectly within reason to ask her.
Be direct , just tell her you have developed an allergy to perfume and it causes illness. Refrain from saying HER. Just all perfume.
B. T. W. We are taught , in my profession, in training courses, about this very issue and are dissuaded from wearing any type of perfume or spray.

But we do have the right to choose another cleaner. Surely it would be better to give her the opportunity to choose whether she wants to wear the perfume or keep the job

I know! Do people think that the solution to every unsatisfactory tradesman is 'do it yourself then' or is it only cleaning that people are supposed to do for themselves? I'm serious, why don't people respond to complaints about bad electricians with 'do it yourself'? Yes, obviously being an electrician requires certification etc, but cleaning really well is also a skill, and not everyone can do it themselves, which is why they need a cleaner! These responses are so stupid.

This is a good point. After i had my children, bizarrely, zoflora gave me a mad reaction. The smell was overwhelming and it made me feel faint. I dread to think what's in it.

@EVHead the OP said the perfume is strong, not that it was an awfull smell. I think people are free to choose their own perfume.

Same sort of thing🤔I had a man who came to service my boiler today
he was here about 30 minutes in that time he went to my downstairs loo and 💩 literally stunk my house out
not pleased at all
do we say no when they ask to use our toilet
long after he had gone he left his trail 🤢

@EricaJohns what on earth is wrong with you?!! I assume your 10 year old wrote this?!!
She never said it was horrid, she wasn't rude or offensive at all. She simply said it is strong and overpowering in HER house. Ibqpudo hate this too.
It is possible to approach this in a way that shouldn't cause any offence. Thank you so much for all you do, it's very much appreciated. It's possible we're quite sensitive to smells but your perfume is staying in the house long after you've finished for the day. Something like that should be ok.
I think you should probably re-read your replies in future and ask you self if it looks like a grown up response!!

@MaloneMeadow It’s the OP’s home and if her cleaner is too smelly for her liking then the easy solution would be not to have one and do the cleaning herself. Not difficult. The cleaner is there doing her job, not forcing her way in against OP’s will.

Such a strange suggestion. The OP obviously wants a cleaner. If the current one is not appropriate the obvious thing to do is to change cleaners. Not clean the place yourself.

I love a warty strong perfume! Can you ask her what she wears and let me know what it is because trying to find one that doesn't disappear in half an hour is a challenge

wafty not warty

Why on earth should the OP go on a fact finding mission on your behalf!? You are the second person who has made this stupid request. If the OP is going to ask the cleaner to desist from wearing the perfume, it would be frankly bizarre to ask what the perfume is! It would sound as if the OP was trying to wind the cleaner up, and would actually be rude, whereas just asking her to lay off wearing it would not. If you are that bothered, look on Fragrantica and look for perfumes with strong sillage. Be aware, though, that if you work in a public facing job you may not be popular with the public.

There are a lot of idiots on this thread. I agree with every one of your posts!

Why on earth are you taking every single one of these comments to heart? Do you really have nothing better to do with your day?

If your lawyer wore strong perfume would you ask them not to wear it when meeting you? Or your consultant surgeon? No, I thought not. Just the people you consider beneath you.

How vulgar of you.

Exactly.

But that isn't the same thing is it. Your lawyer would be unlikely to spend 4 hours every single week in your own home. Neither would a consultant surgeon.

I could say the same for you! I am reacting to the stupidity of the comments saying 'do your own cleaning'. Why should she?

It is the principle. I’m willing to bet that OP would never dream of asking a highly qualified professional to change their perfume/aftershave to suit her preferences, but feels it’s ok to do it in this situation as she’s ‘just a cleaner’.

😂 I took this as you being sarcastic and agreeing with me! You are absurd for even suggesting what you have if you are being serious that is. As a PP has already pointed out only on MN would an absurd person post a reply like yours!

You’ve replied to practically every single comment on this thread. Every single time I’ve looked at MN this afternoon there’s a ‘LovelyTheresa (or not so lovely Theresa imo!) posted on … thread’ notification. I’ve taken the occasional dip in and out whilst you’ve been posting angry paragraphs for hours on end. Get a grip

Guerlain's Shalimar and Mitsouko both seem to last well.

Why should she do her own cleaning?

Because she thinks her cleaner smells!

The cleaner probably douses herself in perfume because she thinks OP’s house smells bad.

So she should get a new cleaner then, shouldn't she!? Not 'do her own cleaning'. And her cleaner is probably nose blind if she is dousing herself so heavily. There is nothing to suggest that OP's house smells, unless you are the crazy poster who was going on about 'horses and arse'.

I absolutely would. If the lawyer or surgeon came to my house regularly for a couple of hours at a time and it made me feel ill. That’s unlikely to happen though so it’s not really comparable.