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.

It's not affecting her work so why are you so bothered by it? It sounds like you're more than a bit controlling. She's doing no harm, she's doing her job well enough so this is a you problem.

Is she having a 2 way convo or maybe learning a language? Annoying either way tbh and I would want to ask if she could stop while you are out of your office.

So I presume the cleaner comes once a week?

How often does she happen to be in the kitchen when you come home it fir tea or lunch? You’ve a house that has lots of rooms. She speaks quietly as you’ve said. You can’t be interacting with her that often in a working day to find that difficult.

How much of a disturbance can it actually be?

If you’re happy with her work, I’d leave her to chat.

Talking on the telephone. I presume with a ear piece so she still has 2 hands to clean

If shes good and you trust her i wouldnt say anything to her

I had a cleaner awhile back when i was a carer and sick myself and she would come in, i would make her a Tea and she would sit and have a quick lunch as she was going from job to job and sometimes she would even bring her baby with her

If you trust someone, they are worth their weight in gold and you should look after them

I think a frustration with the chatting if it’s disturbing you is valid and you could ask that she not chat while downstairs (or whatever floor you work on). But not simply because she’s talking while cleaning. It’s not the sort of job where talking will necessarily distract from the quality of her work.

There are lots of jobs where people talk all the time. I’ve worked in factories and behind the scenes in shops where we spent the whole time chatting. It wasn’t on the phone because people were right in front of us, but we chatted, pretty much non stop, for 8 hours about things that weren’t anything to do with work. The same can be true in plenty of manual labour jobs. I have a friend who’s a gardener who often phones me while she’s working. I’ve seen dog walkers clearly chatting on the phone. (Also lots of nannies, though I think that’s not reasonable as frequently clearly a distraction from their charges).

Upstairs, downstairs eh, OP?

I think it’s just a case of get another cleaner if it’s annoying you.

Then what has the fact she charges £19ph got to do with anything?

She does well then to hold the phone whilst hovering 😜

Some people need that type of input to be able to do tasks such as cleaning.

I personally hate trying to work in the house when my cleaner is there - I organise to work elsewhere!