Cleaner situation please advise

[Tospyornottospy]

Hello everyone - just wanted a bit of advice on the following. Sorry for long post just want to be thorough.

we’ve had a cleaner for 9 months. She does 2 full days (as per her request), 8am-4pm. So 2 x 8 hour days. She was recommended to us via a friend of hers and was previously also a nanny, so for her 8 hours the initial agreement was:

1. for 1-2 hours (broken up) to watch 2 year old whilst I’m running errands/cooking etc
2. take dog for 30 min walk
3. do a little bit of ironing (about 30 mins worth)

so there was 4-5 hours left to clean 2 x a week a 5 bed house (2 bedrooms aren’t used so need very little focus). House is always very tidy. After a few months it became clear she was extremely slow as the ironing that took me 30 mins max was taking 90 mins, so I asked her to drop the ironing and spend more time on the house.

the issue is it’s very unclear to me what she’s actually doing. Surfaces are covered in dust, windows are not clean, under furniture not hoovered etc, mould in parts of the bathroom, mirrors smudged. I’ve pointed these things out various times and they are solved the next time but then not done again.

I feel the hours she is doing are enough for the house to be clean clean but maybe i am
Expecting too much? We pay 18£ an hour plus her travel so it’s not nothing.

our previous cleaner kept the house much cleaner than this in less time and sadly she moved away.

also, DS went upstairs to get a top during the holidays and told me she was just sitting down up there. He’s 7 so could just be bollocks but im not sure how to handle. Sometimes there isn’t a lot of noise up there when im downstairs but i cant really go and stand over here and it’s awkward to keep bringing it up. On the other hand she’s very sweet and the children love her.

what do i do? Speak to her again? Let her go? Get a nanny cam to confirm if she’s actually working up there? Am I expecting too much?

Greater London!

I think many people would, which makes the cleaner that OP has so much more of a CF

Cut your losses OP. She’s terrible. She’s not going to suddenly get better. Also - she was recommended by one of her friends - you need someone else to give a recommendation! I have had 2 cleaners in the past and I’ve never had to tell them what to do. (First one moved away otherwise I would still be employing her!) They have both been recommended by neighbours and been really excellent. Good luck.

Well if anyone is interested please PM me!!

We're on our third cleaner and whilst each has been in our home for far fewer hours than yours each week, none of them have ever been any good at dusting. We've always wondered why we've got a cleaner but our house is thick with dust and cobwebs. Every now and then we need to ask our cleaner to focus on dusting but it never happens without a request. There was actually a thread on here not long ago and believe it or not dusting appeared to be a common problem! In your case, it sounds like she's got plenty time so I'd definitely be asking her to focus on that for a bit.

She's taking you for a fool, OP. You're paying a good salary and she isn't doing her job at all.

Lucky your son spotted her!

The thing is just the surfaces are covered in dust too. She walks around with the duster but maybe her eyesight isn’t good? It’s baffling. The bathroom tiles are starting to get discoloured and my sink now has limescale on the plug. Again we have discussed with her but if it’s not done regularly it happens.

when she was ironing she didn’t remove the calc thing ever and the iron broke. I appreciate I could have been much clearer re instructions but I sort of just assumed
with some of it that an experienced cleaner asking for 18£ an hour would just sort of know this stuff. That’s probably naive though - again Im
terrible and don’t want to be “bossy”.

I’m actually really annoyed about this now I’ve spoken to DH I think even if you split the time by floors it’s honestly plenty of time to do a thorough job. 1.5 hours top floor, 1.5 hours middle floor and 2 hours downstairs. It’s really a lot and if I had time to do it 2 x a week the house would be spotless.

You've got yourself a 'cling film folder'... someone who fannies and faffs with the jobs they don't mind doing that don't really (or indeed at all) need doing and mysteriously doesn't even see the jobs that DO need doing that they're not so keen on.

I'd be inclined to give her a bit of a warning that if she doesn't buck up her ideas you'll terminate her contract, IF you actually need the extra jobs minding kid/walking dog.. but if you don't desperately need those jobs doing, tell her to sling it, she is taking the piss!

Yeh I do wonder if it’s this tbh. Never heard the cling film phrase before! I just have an expectation that the house is as clean as when I do it - otherwise it does feel pointless. Dog and childcare is an extra, don’t “need” it but tbh this week I just don’t feel trust her anymore so I wouldn’t be leaving DS with her anyway.

@WiddlinDiddlin also I am not sure there’s a way to explain re bucking up without just being very awkward and creating an atmosphere where it’s uncomfortable anyway

She's taking the piss, We have a 4 bed house - cleaner does 3 hours. Can you write her a list of what you want done?

And is it thoroughly clean?

Just get rid of her and find somebody else. If she can't clean the house in that amount of time she's a hopeless case. Cleaners should know about cleaning, if they don't there really isn't any point in employing them.

I think cleaning agencies are more efficient and know what they're doing. And they sometimes work in pairs and get more done rather than mooching around like your cleaner seems to be doing.

We used an agency in the past and it ended up with so many different people coming and going which I didn’t love - also with varying results and having to explain every few weeks to new people. I also don’t love the cut of the salary they take - I would rather pay the cleaner more themselves. The person we had before for 4 years was absolutely brilliant and I’m so sad she moved!
Maybe she spoilt us!

Do you have a clear list of everything she should be doing in each room? I know you shouldn’t have to spell it out but at least that way you could then approach her with “x y and z haven’t been done but you’ve ticked them off”.

Even if you just let this cleaner go I’d still do that for the next one. Clear cut expectations.

I never made a list but I suppose I’ve now shown her enough of the issues that I would expect her to address those. She has also said she “doesn’t have time”
to do things - like when I saw a thick film of dust under a very high up wardrobe (I always just hoovered under there it takes 10 seconds) she said she didn’t have time because she walks the dog etc.

I’m a cleaner and do 2 hours a week and leave the houses I do clean, hoover under furniture and dust, I don’t even stop for a cuppa if offered… I’m not paid to drink tea! I used to clean for an elderly guy who was lonely and after cleaning I’d have a cuppa with him and sometimes I’d take a hot cross bun and we’d sit and chat but I wouldn’t charge extra for that, he was perhaps the only person I’ve cleaned for that also became my friend, I also used to grab him shopping and pick up his prescription… anyway my point is … you dictate the hours not her, if she’s watching your toddler for 2 hours that’s fine, 2 hours of cleaning twice a week is plenty to keep a big house nice… she certainly shouldn’t be sitting down on the job… that just takes the piss, I wouldn’t dream of doing that.

Thank you for this input! I obviously don’t mind as she’s there for 8 hours that she has a lunch break etc but the time she was sitting down it was 9am so she had only been here an hour. I think it’s basic to hoover and mop and clean surfaces but surfaces are dusty and unclean. Obviously I then clean them wt the weekend but it defeats the purpose a little. Same if I’m scrubbing at limescale in the bathroom with strong chemicals when I’m pregnant!

Childcare as part of a cleaning job??

We have a small 3 bed house and a cleaner two hours a week. It is SPOTLESS after she's been, I love her. Not a speck of dust or a cobweb in sight. She even sometimes does extra things like clean out the bathroom cabinet or inside the fridge. Honestly, our cleaner would have your house like a showhome in 8 hours, never mind being there twice a week. It sounds as though you've been taken for a mug OP to be honest, I would definitely think about looking for someone else.

She was employed as a “housekeeper/nanny”. This is very much a thing - please Google it. It’s common where I live, she agreed to it beforehand as she had 10 years of nanny experience and was happy with to do this. The entire role was spelled out beforehand and if she wasn’t happy she didn’t need to take the job.

by the by, i also know several people who hired a cleaner just to clean but they became such a wonderful part of the family and liked the children so much that they also took on more of a hybrid role. It’s not uncommon, I don’t think!

This thread has made me feel like a mug. She’s here tomorrow and I don’t really know what to do about it - I need DH to wfh as he will handle a difficult conversation/getting the key back better and I want to be out with the children when it happens and not have to do it in front of them.

Sack and replace. You’ve given her direction and chances and she’s not getting it.

Is that money cash in hand?

If so, and you pay her travel too, you'd get people biting your arm off for this job!