Cleaner drank the juice, ate the salmon and charged her phone

[Shadow743]

I have a cleaner who has been coming for 2hrs a week for approx a year. She is unreliable, often texting the day before with a wide selection of reasons as to why she can't make it, and she doesn't always do a great job. I've been thinking about getting rid of her for a while but I have a lot of guilt around having a cleaner in the first place, as it feels like such a luxury and I feel like a bit of a snob for having one. I've come home whilst she's been there before and seen her charging her devices, noticed that the cordial seems to have been drunk and a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure (but can't be 100% certain) that she finished of the smoked salmon from the fridge. Today, my kids marked a line on the juice bottles as a little experiment and lo and behold, I've come home to find not only has she drunk the cordial, she's finished it AND put the empty bottle on the top of the bin.
Am I being unreasonable to be furious and feel like she's taking the mick now or am I overreacting to some minor issues which I should overlook because a little bit of juice and a little bit of electricity here and there won't kill me???

Are you insane?

By that reckoning, someone who steals your handbag just admires your taste.

Yes she helped herself to food and drink that wasn’t offered.

And she was in the OP’s home for just two hours.

And don’t be a dick with the Aldi reference, it’s not clever.

I know! It's like those Victorian home owners who would lock up the tea in case the parlour maid had a cup 🙄

you sound like an arse - I hope she did eat your salmon

Yes, this is the point. I doubt that a very good employee would be prevented from having a glass of cordial, although maybe that's just me?

😂

Very interesting ! So it’s cultural .
I’m in Dublin and we would never call dilutes drinks ‘ juice ‘ .
Surely ‘juice’ is squeezed from fruit ?

I am astounded that you would care she was charging her phone! I always try to have a can of something in for our cleaner and offer her tea and coffee. If I’m not in I’ll usually text her to say “ginger beer in the fridge” or something like that. She would also help herself to a can before I started offering (took me a while to realise she wanted something!). She’ll also take some fruit for her journey home and takes my almost too old bananas which I’m quite happy about as I am not a “make banana bread” type of person and she is!

You should end her contract because she’s unreliable and not good at cleaning but if you replace her with a good cleaner you should be more hospitable and offer them drinks or let them know what they can drink while they’re there.

Wind your neck in, I was talking to the OP.

Get over yourself.

Aaaaaand she's never coming back. Something smells fishy, and it ain't the salmon.

My thoughts eactly

Also from Dublin and fully agree. Like I said, I'm losing the battle in my own (NI) home.

I always show cleaners (and tradesmen) where hot and cold drinks are and tell them to help themselves. I wouldn't question them charging their phones. You are being petty about these things.

if she is unreliable and does a bad job, that's another story. Let her go because of that if you want.

I don't think the friend stole the cup, she was helping PP make the tea. 🤣🤣🤣

I'm shocked you stop someone having a drink. That yabu. However she's a bad cleaner so get rid of her

YABU re charging and cordial.

My cleaner charges her phone every week and I don't care. I did have a cleaner before who clearly helped herself to the WiFi as we have no signal where we live, and then used the WiFi to be on the phone non stop on speakerphone, yelling in her mother tongue.

It was unnecessary when I was working from home and it annoyed me she had helped herself to the WiFi to clearly make WiFi calls home, otherwise why would she not just do them between jobs?

I got rid of her. She also used an electric scooter to get between jobs which were not legal in London at the time and she brought it into my home every week, we live in a terrace house, so it would block the tiny entrance and I couldn't get in/out. Again she never asked, just turned up with it on day.

You mean dilutable orange??
It's hot and she's cleaning. She presumed a drop of Miwadi would be ok.
Charging her phone, well why not? Maybe it doesn't last all day.
These are small things.

Do you charge the phone in your workplace?
Do you get a cup of tea (free) in your workplace.

Eating food from fridge is different.

I wouldn’t care about charging her devices. But for some reason I pictured her drinking the juice straight from the container for some reason, not saying she did, but that would gross me out (my dad used to do this). I’d be upset about the salmon too. It ain’t cheap.

And the food?

Unprofessional of her, she's only in your house 2 hours. I'd be pissed off.

The OP wasn't sure the cleaner had eaten the salmon.

I feel sorry for your cleaner. You have been unhappy with her service for some time but because you feel uncomfortable addressing it (due to your own discomfort with having a cleaner at all) you are overcomplicating things and looking for further reasons to fire her, including by getting your kids involved in trying to 'catch her out'. Just fire her for the bad service; do it with respect and stop involving your kids in silly games.

Also, some people put empties in top of the bin as a reminder that they need replacing.

I hate it when cleaners take the piss but helping themselves to a bit of squash on a hot day and charging their phone are hardly crimes of the century in my book. I'd be leaving the cordial out for her with a little note saying help yourself.

Sack her because she's unreliable and not terribly good at her job, by all means. But the other reasons make you VU. (and I'm ignoring the salmon because you don't sound very sure.)

tell me you're joking