Cleaner on phone all the time

[waitingforever]

My cleaner who charges £19/hour is on the phone the entire time she cleans (5 hours). She is working ok nothing exceptionally good or bad but it annoys me so much that she continuously talking while doing her chores. I am not sure of any other job where you can talk on phone and work. Am I unreasonable? Or should I mention it.

The only thing that matters is ‘is your house clean’

if not raise it with her. I’m perfectly able to clean my own house while chatting away.

if your cleaner can manage to clean your house whilst on calls, why don’t you do the same? Problem solved. You can have the cleanest house ever and save yourself 100 pounds a week.

When I was a housekeeper I got a serious bollocking cos not only did I look at my phone sometimes (they had cameras in the house and watched me on them) but I dared to plug my phone into the already plugged in charger!! I left that day i got the bollocking

Our cleaner comes in for 10 hours per week. What is shocking about that. We like things properly cleaned, bedding changed , deep cleaning, ironing. We don’t live in a mansion but do like a very clean home.

What's that for to do with anything? The cleaner is working for the OP she's perfect entitled to not be happy about any aspect of the way she works and choose to stop using her.

I wouldn't want anyone talking continuously in my house either for 5:hours, I'm surprised at the replies here, well not really as posters on here often seem out of step with real people

She can't talk on her phone for the full 5 hours every time she's there surely.

It sounds like she's on the phone sometimes there's no denying that, but she actually gets the job done and doesn't distract you you just object to it and are embellishing the story.

If you're happy with the job she does let her crack on, you sitting seething in your office isn't achieving anything

Same, I have ADHD and talking / listening to music etc helps me concentrate while cleaning, rather than distracts me.

My mind is busy and needs input. Cleaning is so utterly dull, I feel like my brain will explode from boredom if I don't have something else keeping me going while cleaning. Cleaning in silence makes it really hard to focus, for me. My brain desperately wants to do something else, if I'm not also keeping it occupied.

OP the talking might actually be helping her focus, rather than distracting her.

Like others say, you should focus on whether she's doing a good job or not. If she is, you need to accept it as a quirk I think. Asking someone to be silent while cleaning is unreasonable unless it's actually distracting you, but it sounds like you can keep out of her way if you choose to.

Not sure why you find this hard to believe?! I could easily talk for 5 hours with a friend! (DP couldn't though he'd hate it! We're all different).

Perhaps she has a friend who also cleans and they keep each other company on what can be a lonely job otherwise.

Agree that the OP sitting in her office getting annoyed isn't helping anyone though!

It's more the every time aspect, I'm sure she doesn't save a 5 hour conversation every week just to have at OP's house 😂😂

I clean faster when talking on the phone or listening to a podcast.
In some cultures, extended families stay all day on a group conversation when they have jobs that are compatible. In the last few weeks I’ve noticed a painter, taxi driver and corner shop owners doing this. So I could find it plausible that she is on the phone for 5 hours.
Address the part that disrupts your life/work and forget the rest.

Get a different cleaner. I haven't got a cleaner at the moment. Have had them in the past. Good non annoying cleaners are few and far between. I think I'll try an agency this time. On the phone all the time is totally unacceptable. I had one once who brought her irritating 3 year old occasionally who I had to entertain. I would rather have cleaned. And she wasn't even a very good cleaner.

Has she got some sort of ear-piece/headset then? Because I presume she can’t be cleaning one-handed whilst holding the phone in the other?
Constant chat on someone else’s phone in my own house would annoy me and I’d have to have a word with her.

YABU. If the job is getting done it really doesn't matter.

I think I'll try an agency this time.

Good luck with that. There's plenty of work around, so I will never understand why any self-employed cleaner would need to sign up to an agency to have them find it for them. In other words, if you (that is you personally) go to an agency as a customer, it will be interesting to know as to what you get that's different from what you got when hiring directly.

If it was the office cleaner where you worked that might apply but why would anyone accept something that annoys them in their own home that they are paying their own money for?

It's obvious from the very fact that the OP has started a thread that it does matter to her, she's not saying it has to matter to everyone else, she's allowed to be different

Actually she is from an agency run by a lady as she doesn’t speak English. I like her, she is pleasant but when downstairs - the constant chatter is annoying plus if I have to tell her things it feels like I am interfering in her conversation. Difficult to explain but when you have two people on work calls when you come out you need quiet in the kitchen to have a cup of tea, lunch, etc. not another person chatting away.

why 5 hours - it’s a big house with lots of rooms and floor so she needs time

why cleaner - I don’t like cleaning, I am progressing at work so want to focus on that, I have young kids so can’t do everything by myself.

I will try to be more understanding and see how it goes next time.

Is this in London or somewhere nearby? And is the £19ph what you pay the cleaner, or is that including agency fees?

Oh get a grip. Cleaning is a really boring job and talking while she does it is completely fine. People rarely do manual jobs in silence.

What has that got to do with the original
post?

YANBU. It would drive me mad. It’s totally unacceptable to be on the phone all the time. Get a different cleaner.

The fact that you made reference to her not speaking English made me wonder if it was London-centric, because I know from my vast work experience in this sector that outside of London the typical demographic for a domestic cleaner is white-British female.

There is no shortage of people wanting to do the job in London, but outside of it it's a different story. Rates for cleaning are a lot higher outside of inner-London, and customers are plentiful. This has everything to do with your OP, because if you're in an area where there's plenty of work then you have to be careful what you say, because like it or not, people who do this job will exercise their right to dispense with a customer if they choose to.

The £19ph is also relevant, seeing how you brought it up in your OP, but are later saying the lady comes from an agency. If she's being paid £19ph to turn up via an agency, where nothing but insurance is provided (as in, you give her all that she needs to clean with, and she isn't responsible for washing cloths & maintaining equipment etc.) then £19ph is a fair price, in fact bordering on the generous for agency rates.

If it's £19ph including agency fee, then for someone self-employed they'd need to be taking approximately £15.70 per hour just to be paid the same as minimum wage on a payroll, when other factors are added in, such as holiday pay. She will also not be paid for travel time as a self-employed worker from an agency. Therefore, if she's being paid a low hourly rate, I would certainly beg that you factor in some kindness when mentioning you don't like her being on the phone for the five hours she is.

And before you pull me up for saying self-employed, I am taking this from your use of the specific work "agency", which has a very specific meaning in the cleaning industry, and one which cannot be applied to either a cleaner who is self-employed & who finds their own customers, or a cleaner who is either employed or self-employed and works for a cleaning company.

No one working for an agency is going to be an employee, as that's not how cleaning agencies work.

Kindly, I have answered your question to me, would you now go back and answer mine? I asked if she did any cleaning work that was noisy, such as vacuuming, and if she was still talking on her phone whilst doing that.

@Anotherscrubber Thanks for answering in detail.
this is outside of london. I provide all the equipment, cleaning stuff, cloth, etc. I offer her tea, coffee, etc. all the time. I treat her with utmost kindness and respect. There are plenty of cleaners here as when I was looking quiet a few were interested.
Yes she is on phone 90% of the time even when hovering. I don’t know how she keeps up the conversation but it is on.
if she was listening to music, podcast, etc it wouldn’t bother me but continuous chatting does. Specially when I come out and want some
peace and quiet when my job is exhausting. I am
paying her and she is in my house. I won’t go to anyone house and keep talking on phone endlessly cleaning or otherwise and expect same from her.

I might not say anything with all the post here in case I hurt her feelings.

Jeez I can clean and talk. I can even drive and talk. It’s a mindless job that doesn’t need intellectual thought. Let her chat away.
If it means you can concentrate because you can hear her then that’s different.

Thank you for that. I do appreciate it. I will say though that it would be prudent not to confuse the interest you've had with there being a plentiful supply...the best cleaners and cleaning companies are the ones who have a waiting list and rarely, if ever, advertise. I know it's a terribly arrogant to say so, but I interview my clients when a new enquiry comes in, not that I take on much new work as I am always fully booked. Agencies are another category altogether - historically they will fall over themselves to offer to fill the hours you need, but frequently never have enough cleaners on their books to do so. They will take the booking then search for a cleaner...I suppose it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission, as they say. This said, I am incredibly biased about agencies, as I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would go to all the bother of registering as self-employed and doing all their own tax returns (or at the least hiring an accountant), but not wanting to find & manage their own clients...that's is the easiest part of all. Unless, of course, they haven't done everything by the book.

Anyway, I don't have an issue with using the phone when I'm working as I said before, but i don't think it sets the correct tone to do so when clients are at home, thus I avoid.

It isn't wrong to ask her to not talk on a phone in the kitchen, if it would help you enjoy your home.

Just don't dress it as a matter of principle, state it as your preference.