Our cleaner got offended

[Hocuspoc]

I am confused.
We have a cleaner for a couple of months now, a nice lady, but doesn't exactly stick to a schedule.
We agreed on 2 hours per week after her own assessment how much it would take her to clean the flat on weekly basis.
With the exception of first two times, she started leaving earlier, for a couple of weeks now she is staying no longer than hour and a half.
Yet, she always says at the end - 2 hours done hence x Pounds for today.
Because I don't find money on the street and because there are more things left to do every time she announces she completed the work, we decided to make a list of tasks so there is enough work to use up the 2 hours (which we are paying for).
She was absolutely livid when I introduced this plan. There was nothing out of ordinary on that list, nothing that she didn't do the first time she cleaned the flat. Yet she stormed through the flat for 2 hours to the minute and left without saying goodbye - assuming she is not coming again 🤷🏼‍♀️
I really don't understand people anymore,sigh...

I had one years ago and asked that she do ironing too. It was through an agency and they estimated 10 items per hour (don’t even go there, I know) I came home that night and neatly ironed on our bed was 1 proper shirt, 1 t shirt and 8 socks. I know my fault for not sorting the ironing first but it still makes me laugh. I had a new cleaner the following week.

She ironed socks? Didn't that ruin them?

She probably works on the basis that if she ‘breaks into’ the second hour, that’s classed as 2 hours work.
Id get another cleaner.

Getting a good cleaner is like gold dust. I’ve given up and just do it myself now. Fed up of poor cleaning, missed jobs and cut time.

Why would she think that? People always put that up as an excuse but it's absolutely crap. She is paying her for two hours work. If you have a job you can't just leave when you think you've done it.

Agree! It's making me stressed just reading this!

Nope - the best decision of my life (and I don't say that lightly)

I agree with this. If the brief was to clean the flat, and she did so, and did it quickly, then why get mad at her for leaving?
Should she just work more slowly ?

Did she do a good job?

Why didn’t you challenge her when she said 2 hours? Surely you could have said, You arrived at 9 and left at 10.15 so I’ll pay you xx for the hours you worked.
i have a much loved cleaner who recently stated arriving about 20 minutes late. When I commented on it she blamed the bus. But the next week she was back to arriving on time.

I blame Instagram, people watch a few Mrs hinch videos and think that cleaning is both easy and a money making scam. Not realising the influencers are 'cleaning' already clean houses.

We used to have a cleaner and she was fantastic, in fact she was so proactive I'd feel like I had to have a really good tidy before she came or else she'd do it and I'd feel bad as she was there to clean not tidy up! She stopped coming in covid then moved away. Tried a few after and frankly it wasn't worth the money or hassle.

Never understand this attitude. My cleaner works by the hour. If she finishes 'early', she'll do something else not normally done or expected - eg a deep clean of the oven or fridge. It's bliss.

Get a back bone and text her today. Say, thank you for any previous good work you have done but I am terminating our contract now. You are leaving after 50 minutes and charging me for x time which is not acceptable.

Just say if she comes back - two hours pay for two hours work. Good luck, my old cleaner used to do the same only we paid through an app so no opportunity to not pay for services not rendered :-( We had to just sack her instead.

This seems to happen with the majority of cleaners over time.
We had a lady who was brilliant at the start, but gradually started cutting her time and jobs she completed.

If we were wfh she would say oh I will leave you in peace, except I offered to move as it was the kitchen/dining room so needed the most cleaning.

Even when I was wfh she left after 1.5 hrs when we paid for 2.

Thankfully we cancelled her services before covid, so didn't have the middle class angst of wondering if we should pay when she wasn't allowed to come.

Oddly no, but they weren’t exactly quality socks

I charge my clients 3x the hourly rate of my cleaner. So it makes sense to pay someone else to do the work.

Ive had 3 cleaners, two of them did this, started coming less and less but still charging for 2 hours. The 3rd stopped working as a cleaner after getting pregnant.

I also don't understand why when she makes her statement about being there 2 hours you don't say "you've only been here 1.5 hours"

I'm on a fb group called nightmare customers...there are several posts about skilled tradespeople going out, either fixing things quickly or doing a job faster than they said... then the customer refuses to pay.
I was a gardener and did a hedge cutting job and quoted for 3 hours including tidying up. Because we were going out my wife came along and tidied up so we finished in an hour. It's always quicker with 2 as one cuts and one tidies. The customer got quite shitty but paid. 3 months later rang and asked me to do it again. I refused. She almost begged, as it turns out I was half the price of anyone else. I still didn't do it

I guess paying by the hour means there is no reward for working fast / efficiently?

Agree with PP, it's probably better to agree a rate for the job

Me too, I gave up after the 3rd one. She actually was good but quit cleaning when she had a baby. The first two took the piss with time. One was a husband and wife, they just turned up whenever that day and did 45 minutes, so total 1.5 hours rather than two and when I tried to talk to them about not doing the full 2 hours they were condescending and kept going, "you know its 1 hour each, so 2 in total', except they were only staying 45 minutes... way too stressful. The mess is preferable.

I have this issue now. We pay our cleaners for three hours. They usually do about two hours. I'm absolutely rubbish at confronting people. It's hard because I've got to know them, I know about their lives, their families, their problems. I really like them. I know they struggle financially so I feel bad for suggesting I only pay for two hours!!
I wonder if I should just see it as paying for a job, rather than per hour. I'm pleased with their work. The house looks great once they've been. However they could definitely do three hours in our house - for example, hoovering under the sofas!
Argh, wish I was more assertive.

@Chickenwing2 really? Some people find it at least a bit hard when someone challenges them like that

because it is a challenge, not a statement of fact

No that's why I sacked mine and do it myself.

I've always done it on a task list from.day one and estimated how long the tasks would take me to do. Providing it's all done I don't mind if the cleaner leaves 20/30 minutes early but she rarely does, usually I'm thinking "crikey, are you ever leaving".

Day 1: three hours
Bogs (5) and bathrooms (4)
Steam mop hard floors
Vacuum
Dishwasher

Day 2: three hours
Dust wooden furniture, around TVs
Wipe lightswitches, door handles
Dishwasher
Ironing (about 1.5 to 2 hours)

A couple of times a year she comes for six hours and I take a day off and we have a deep clean - inside windows, wipe inside kitchen cupboards, lamp shades, skirting, paintwork, woodwork, we pull.stuff out together to get behind it.

I've only had one duff cleaner in 40 years. I had my first for nine years, followed by four, then locked into a Polish and now East European network. I have not had an English cleaner for more than 20 years. I pay £17.50.

They have never had to tidy. That is not their job.