Abusive cleaner took pics of my home

[ChicExpert]

My lovely self employed cleaner went back to her own country. New cleaner started this week. House is tidy but dirty floor and surfaces, needs a good vacuum/mop/wiping up. We hire 4 hours a week for a deep clean of the downstairs(kitchen dining living room)/hallway and stairs. Standard 3 bed house in London with kitchen extension, takes me 2 hours to do but pay for 4 so the job gets done properly.

New cleaner came and in 4 hours couldn't clean what we asked which is just vacuum/mop and wipe down all surfaces. Had to ask her to clean individual window seals as she didn't and when she left I noticed the living room window seal wasnt cleaned. She broke my glass chopping board and didn't say anything and left chemicals in the oven which I told her not to clean. Last cleaner was able to wipe the skirting boards and didn't leave a spec of dirt in corners, this cleaner left many areas dirty.

I said nothing and thought I won't hire again. The company messaged me why I don't want to hire again and I said I wasn't happy with the clean nothing else.

I then get very abusive messages and pictures of my floor being dirty saying my house is disgusting. Didn't get to respond before I was blocked by the company.

AIBU? I feel completely violated and want to complain some how. She took photos of my home without permission.

Don't even know what to do now and feel uncomfortable using another cleaner. Husband says I'm over reacting :( am I?

FYI I've added a photo of my home before the cleaner came. Floors are clearly dirty but the kitchen is tidy/needs wipe down.

off point

but you really remind me of my ex MIL @AngelicKaty

lots of crossness about her perceived peoples stupidity 🤭

I'm not cross - I couldn't care that much about other people's stupidity. I'm just amazed by it - it makes me wonder how they get out of the house in the morning. 😂

Pretty much exactly what my ex MIL would say when one of her children suggested she relaxed or toned it down! 🤭

off point but you remind me of my ex SIL.

🤭

Thank you. These were my exact thoughts, but I didn't have time to type them yesterday. OP, don't be persuaded that you are in the wrong here. You're not. The best cleaners are the ones who thrive on it, and find great satisfaction in it. That company does not deserve your business.

@FeetLikeFlippers Well said, both of you. How the owner of the cleaning company thought she could behave so unprofessionally towards OP beggars belief. And the new cleaner taking photo's of the inside of the house without OP's consent ... what an appalling abuse of trust. 😫

Why in the name of God would you need a cleaner if your house was clean??!! Surely that's the whole point. Don't feel shamed OP, it is normal for dirt to build up like that with the kind of traffic you describe, and it sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Your cleaner and the company were really out of order and I imagine they won't have much business success with that kind of attitude.

Watching the robot hoover recommendations with interest, I get so sick of sweeping the blessed floors for the dirt to reappear within minutes, it feels like (4 kids, 2 adults).

I suspect that "cleaning companies" have a different attitude, and that many hired by them are not what I'd call "cleaners by nature". How much is being paid to the actual cleaner by the time the company owner takes a cut. I'd rather pay a person directly, a person who I know genuinely enjoys that work and with whom I can build a rapport directly. It's more of a word-of-mouth thing around here. We had a cleaner in an office I used to work in. She was fastidious and was one of those people who loved the job. The other companies in the building hired a company. It was clear from the stink in the loos that the mop used on the floors was harbouring bacteria. I had a cleaner myself who used to love coming in to my kitchen in complete disarray so she'd have the satisfaction of turning it around to perfection. These people do exist. You just need to find one.

What the hell are you on about you utter loon?. I’m sticking up for the op.

There seems to be some major communication issues, either between op and the cleaning company and op and some posters on this thread
The cleaning company should look up the word cleaning and expect their cleaners to do what their job title describes
Op didn’t hire them as a photographer

Op asked the cleaner to sweep and mop the downstairs floor.
Wipe down the kitchen worktops, table, windowsills and cabinet fronts

She didn’t ask for a deep clean

She didn’t ask for her whole house to be cleaned

What she got was the cleaner sweeping everything to the side of the kitchen and taking photos of the dirt as though that was something outside of the job description

If cleaners aren’t expected to clean then why bother with them.

Going to be a lot of people out of work if it gets out that people expect to be paid but complain that they are expected to do their job title

Imagine if nurses take a photo of an ill patient and send it to hospital admin with the question, “Why am I expected to nurse this?”

Or a chef expecting to be paid in full but wanting the diners to make their own dinner

Cleaners expecting to not clean but still wanting to be paid
Is that just having impossibly high expectations

@Caiti19 @Yalta LOVE both your posts. So many great observations and entirely on point wrt OP's posts. 😘

Interesting that you never responded to the person who rudely said "use your brain". The poster you're berating was merely responding, as I was, to that comment. Clearly context means nothing to you.

Just got a little sick in my mouth at those pics of the floor 😷

You should see a GP. That's not normal. If a few crumbs and an empty packet make you physically sick I can't imagine how difficult your daily life is.

Same here and I have very low standards

They have a cleaner for 4 hours per week and that's the state the floor's in?

That's not normal indeed

Quite. The cleaner is shockingly inept. Perhaps if she spent less time taking photos and more time doing the job she was paid to do she would have time to sweep properly?

The first photo was taken before the cleaner got there.

At some point in the preceding week (almost certainly the moment it happened) I would have picked up the various lumps (of food?) that I dropped on the floor. Apparently that's not occurred to the many people in this house.

Cleaner presumably took her own photos to explain to her boss that the window seals had to wait while she filled a skip with the detritus from the floor.

@yes
What she got was the cleaner sweeping everything to the side of the kitchen and taking photos of the dirt as though that was something outside of the job description

You've just made this up. There is no way of concluding the pile of detritus is swept up from the entire kitchen into a pile.

Although by suggesting the mess is too much to be general floor mess and must be the result of the entire floor being swept, you ARE confirming that if this was the state of the floor not a swept up pile, then it would be an unsavoury level of detritus.

😐

@Yalta hasn't "just made this up":

OP's 15th post: "MN thinks my entire house has dirt like that photo when it was one section she sweeped(sic) all the dirt from the room together in one part of the kitchen."

OP's 18th post: "My floors aren't that bad, the photo is of her brushing the dirt from the whole kitchen to one corner and on that day it was particularly dirty..."

OP's final post: "You do realise the cleaner swept the entire floor to one corner and took a photo? Our kitchen is a 6m extension with a large floor surface area and as I said our floor did not look that dirty when I left. Yet she swept it and took a photo to send to the agency.
As I said before posters think my entire house looks like that one photo and it's just not true."

@downwindofyou Yes did not make this up. You did in your haste to shame the OP or perhaps you are hard of reading. I am cringing for you.

Honestly, this kind of weird shaming really puts me off getting a cleaner and makes me think of getting a robot vacuum instead 🥴 Yes, obviously the floor is dirty. Would I personally leave it that dirty? No, but then I’m not cleaning up after multiple people while pregnant, although I do have a disability that makes it harder to clean. Would I be judged for that by someone I hired?

YANBU - no need for them to be aggressive and if they’re not careful they’ll put people off using their business or even getting new customers, especially these days when more tech solutions are available.

Big ups to all the people who think that floor pic is pretty normal.
Also to those who work full time and can’t afford a cleaner so their floor will be like that 90% of the time.
Youre my people.

Also it’s made me feel a bit better about not being able to afford a cleaner because I would be furious if that happened!!!

I know OP posted about it ages ago but why did the cleaner sweep all the dirt to one side of the room? I've never known anyone to sweep that way and I've worked a few jobs where sweeping is part of your role.

I, and everyone else I know, make a little pile and sweep it along with us. If it's a large room I might make 3 or four little piles. Surely sweeping it all to the edge of a room will make it harder to pick up with the dustpan. I know when I get crumbs right up against the counter I have to get the hoover out to get it up.

I feel like the cleaner needs more training to help them clean at a normal pace because four hours is more than enough time to do what OP asked with some extra time left over. Also, she just seems a bit shit at the bits she has managed.