Caught Cleaner clipping her Nails in our Bathroom..

[Naliny]

…with my nail clipper.

AIBU to fire her over this?

(Also - have never done an AIBU before and can’t figure out how to do the poll).

I prefer to treat people as human beings. I couldn't get worked up about this in the first place but firing her?
Yes do her a favour.

So she's good enough to babysit your kids in emergencies, you've known each other for years, and you begrudge her a few snips with a pair of nailclippers?? It's not as if she went into your wardrobe, put on one of your summer dresses, and sat sunning herself in a deckchair (which one of my teacher's cleaners did, apparently).

Definitely doesn't warrant sacking. Give the lady a break. I'm sure she does some of the grimmer cleaning jobs in your household! I'd just say to her that I'd be happy to buy her a pair of nail clippers next time you go shopping as you'd prefer if she didn't use yours!

It wouldn’t occur to me to not use someone’s nail clipper or scissors, this lady has probably touched everywhere in your home, why is it grim her finger nails have touched the clippers? If she’s got any germs or infection it would be all over your towels, bedding, cups etc that’s she’s touched.

So you would just go into someone’s cupboard and use their nail scissors without asking? Really?!

Wow. That is not normal at all. You don't just use someone else's personal care items. That's massively overstepping.

If I was cleaning a bathroom and snagged a nail then I would use clippers or nail file etc that was in the bathroom cabinet, I wouldn’t go snooping round other places but if I’m tidying and cleaning out that cupboard and knew the clippers were there I would just have used them without asking. I didn’t realise until this thread that anyone would have an issue with that.

I don't view every one as dirty or disease ridden. But it's the same as I wouldn't expect any one to use my hair brush or comb:because they are for my personal use. I would certainly have lent the cleaner my nail clippers if she'd broken a nail but I wouldn't expect her just to take them.
It's not a question of not trusting her: it's a matter of respecting your employers possessions.
And sorry I haven't read every post so I've missed the one which talks about the cleaner and OP's children. Does she look after them as well as cleaning?

This is why I keep an eye on new cleaners. Obviously in this situation she wasn’t new but generally I like to make sure we have the same standards about things. People are all so very different! I use to keep my toothbrush in my bedroom when I lived in a shared house, I’d heard too many horror stories 😅

I wouldn’t mind, my nails drive me a bit mad when they grow a bit and can be a right pain when they’re a bit too long to type or clean, they might have been bothering her for the whole day and she thought she’d just do it quickly to make her job a tiny bit easier.

You sound awful.
Get a bloody grip.

Brother eurgh, whats that brother.

I wouldn’t class it as personal in the same way that a razor or toothbrush would be

It's a bit odd but not the same as using your hairbrush, which I would object to. If she's otherwise great, as you say, I'd let it go.

I once caught my cleaner in my bed with her boyfriend when I came home unexpectedly with a migraine. Now that was a sacking offence!

And this is why I still love Mumsnet. Just when you think that you can't be surprised any more!

Anything you have to open a bedroom/bathroom
cupboard or a drawer to get is personal.

Made me laugh!

I wouldn't get upset about this but if you were able to count the clippings, that means she left them behind? Yeeuuukk! Why did she not clean them up?

I think I'd want to find someone new not for the actual clipping but because she left her nails behind. 🤢

But where did she put the clippings??? I don’t think you need amazing hearing to hear clips, it’s a very distinctive high pitched sound. I find it really weird for her to do it without asking but I would probably have let her borrow the clippers for fingernails so I wouldn’t personally fire her over it. Annoying that you’re paying her to clean but she’s clipping nails/making a mess in that time, though

Any item you use on your body for cleaning or grooming purposes is a personal item. It's not debatable.

She didn’t say that. She could count the sounds, not the actual clippings.

Agree with @Replying24 .

Hand soap, lotion, hand towel etc are usually shared

Hand soap and lotion are dispensed out of containers and hand towels are used on clean hands, or at least should be clean hands. Not the same as nail clippers or files at all.

You have no way of knowing if the hands are actually clean.

You have no way of knowing if the cleaner has some condition like molluscum contagiosum or a parasite problem when she sits on the loo, uses the TP, uses the soap, uses the towels.

And unless you are going to stand outside the bathroom when you have reason to believe she's using the loo, you would have no way of knowing if she even washed her hands.