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???

And charging her phone is not a big deal

Am I only the person watching this thread in case the cleaner turns up with her side of the story?

so you are going to bring your kids up to look down on people by making assumptions that those who do manual work are probably thieves

Stop giving me ideas....

She says de isn't sure about the food though

The fact that your children are actively involved in this "gotcha" moment is just awful.

YABU for being annoyed with her charging her phone. Similarly I'd expect her to be able to use your loo and have a standard drink.

The salmon would be too much, but you don't know whether she ate it or threw it away because it started to smell badly.

If you don't like her services, end the cooperation, no big deal. If you decide to do it over charging her phone, it would be the cutting your nose situation.

That’s a totally ridiculous comparison.

Yes, OPs family sound really nice...

Cleaners on here are always the villains, why create a thread, it beats me.

And what would her side of the story be?

She was so hungry and thirsty after cleaning for a whole two hours that she had to help herself to food and drink that wasn’t hers?

What the fuck is wrong with everyone on this thread?

yabvvu.

Cordial and phone charging sound completely fine. Given how weird you are being about the cordial I doubt your version of the salmon I’m afraid. It is just too odd and does not add up. No cleaner does that it does not make sense. More likely to be one of your kids.

This.
Your kids will grow to be fine adults, I’m sure

I think it’s reasonable to fire her based on her unreliability for sure. If the food thing was definitely her that would be reason as well. The drinks and the phone charging would be unreasonable to fire her over in my opinion. But I imagine if she was a reliable cleaner who did a great job, the phone and the drinks wouldn’t be much of an issue. These are just further frustrating things on top of the actual problem.

I've never had a cleaner, but I wouldn't expect one to help themselves from my food. Unless otherwise advised, I'd expect them to either drink water from the tap or bring their own drinks/snacks. Most jobs don't provide free drinks and food, except on special occasions; why is cleaning different? Begrudging someone charging their phone seems a little off, though I wouldn't expect them to do that every time, either.

In any event, why feel guilty? She's providing a service and you're not satisfied with the quality of that service. Let her go and find someone else.

I think she left the empty bottle out, pointedly, as a message: "Yes I have been drinking the cordial, and if you have a problem with that you should say so!" It was incredibly rude of the OP's children to mark a line on the bottle to catch her out. It isn't expensive stuff and she deserves a drink.

Charge phone - totally reasonable

Drink squash - bit odd but unless she’s downing a whole bottle I’d let it slide

Salmon - really odd and I think you should find a way of figuring out for sure if she’s taking food regularly

Unreliability - not worth the hassle, from experience she’ll probably drop you in time anyway

Is her name Charlie?! This was my last cleaner who turned up late (if at all), wanted to leave early and still be paid in full. For clarity no, she wasn’t super efficient and didn’t get everything done. Loved to bust out the ubiquitous “childcare issues” excuse. Who knew schools in England close for all of August and part of July 🤷‍♀️

Sack her. Up to you if you challenge her about the slacking and thieving. Good cleaners are hard to find. Seems like no one wants to work. Charlie’s predecessor only showed up 25% of the time and got the boot as a result

The charging her phone and having a glass of juice I wouldn’t be too precious about. Surely she’s entitled to a drink. However I couldn’t argue with anyone either if they said “tap water is good enough”.
Now about the salmon though. id go spare.
I dont think they’re your main problems with her though. It’s the unreliability

It was a good exercise by OP’s children, why is it rude as it’s their cordial in their house. The cleaner was sending a message yes l agree. She comes across as cheeky and entitled from it though. Can’t she bring her own drink?! That’s what l do at work

I think she probably just meant "the cordial is empty, you might need to pick some up if there isn't any in the back of the press"

If she exists at all.

I can’t ever imagine begrudging a visitor a drink or charging their phone.

What a nasty woman you are.
And what’s worse you are turning your children into nasty people too.

I would be very annoyed if she ate the salmon - but you don’t even know it was her.

The fact that you can’t even ask your own family members about who ate the salmon without them lying, shows what a dysfunctional household you have.

How many people trawl social media etc when at work, seems quite a lot from posts on here, she can surely charge her phone, even indulge in a cheeky Vimto!

Opinions on MN seem at variance with real life a lot of the time.

No way should a cleaner help themselves to food or drink. Bloody cheek.
Nor should they charge their phone (although I think that's a lesser 'crime' because they aren't going in cupboards or fridges.)

Well done those kids for setting a trap and catching her.

But, primarily I'd not have tolerated her unreliability for so long anyway.

Haven’t had a cleaner for years but I always gave her drinks. If she was with us at lunchtime, I’d make a sandwich too if I was having one. She did 5 hours for us though and worked bloody hard, did a much better job than I could at home with two kiddies while my husband worked away all week.
That said, she was excellent and reliable and became a friend.

I suspect these small things have irritated you so much because you’re just not happy with her. You do t need an excuse to let her go: please don’t mention the cordial thing if you do, you’ll come across as very weird 😁

Oh my god, the weather has been so hot, mine works hard and I offer her a can of coke just to quench her thirst.

she drank some cordial…. Get a grip…..

now if she’s often late, unreliable and shit at what she does that’s a different story…. I’d deffo throw her out with the cordial bottle.