Cleaner on the phone a lot

[lilybit2025]

As the title says, she does an ok job. But I work from home and all I can hear is her talking on the phone. It drives me insane. I've already spoken to her 'manager' about it and nothings changed. She's laughing away, chatting about personal stuff. I just find it so unprofessional!

I have very bad luck with cleaners. My previous one I sacked as she decided, that whilst I was on holiday, she only needed to do half an hours work and trie charging me for three (ring doorbell caught her) AIBU?!??

Mixed feelings on this. I could talk on the phone and do a good job cleaning...is she doing a good job? It is unprofessional though and an annoyance if you WFH.
If she is a good cleaner,and they are hard to come by, I'd be tempted to put up with it, unless she comes daily 🤣

Is she hands free? I feel if hands free you can do just as good a job.

If the cleaning is only okay then I’d pick her up on that, give an opportunity for improvement, and if none after the next appointment, let her go. I think talking on the phone is a grey area: unless you’ve specifically asked her directly not to because you’re working and need quiet or whatever, I think it’s pretty common for cleaners to play music or talk hands-free as they work - mine does, as do our office cleaners at work.

ETA: have these conversations with the cleaner, not her manager - who probably isn’t passing information on or not being clear enough to her to remember all the many different requests that her dozens of clients whose names she may not always remember are making.

Speak with her manager again, as it is unprofessional that she is distracting you from your work. Listening to a podcast or audio book is fine, in my experience, but if the home is occupied, she shouldn't be at the level where she is "driving you insane".

ETA She should have earphones, so she is hands-free. Holding the phone means she can't be cleaning as effectively with one hand.

She doesn't have a headset just puts her phone to her ear, so I know she's stopping because she will stand in the kitchen on it. But this happens every time she comes. I don't know how she gets so many calls in two hours!

I don’t think you’re BU not to like it but I think it’s reasonable enough behaviour to be cleaning and chatting. I think all you can do is get another cleaner and hope they don’t do it. It wouldn’t be reasonable to request quiet whilst she’s in your house really.

No, I wouldn’t be happy with that. Ask for a different cleaner.

Sack her and get another. She's paid to clean, not chat. Five minutes here and there is ok, but she's taking the piss. When you talk about her manager, I'm assuming you use a firm? I would talk to the manager again and reiterate that it's unacceptable, but if they're not taking it seriously you should get another firm or an independent operator.

I wouldn’t mind if she was doing a good job and had head headphones but seeming as she is only doing an ok job and is putting the handset to her ear then I would be finding a new cleaner.

It’s not acceptable, at all.

Why not? I wouldn't like my cleaner to be chatting on the phone while she was cleaning my house. Maybe for a couple of minutes on a coffee break, but not for ages and ages. You are paying, of course you can request silence!

YABU. Cleaning is a physically demanding job, it’s also mind numbing. There is no reason why her connecting with friends or family would be unprofessional, as long as the job is done and she’s not taking a seat every 5 mins to text / do video calls. She will be there for just a few hours a week.

If it’s distracting to you, find a room you can lock yourself in for that period of time. When you WFH, life still happens around you. If you don’t want noises or distractions, you need to get her to come on the days you’re not WFH.

It's affecting the quality of her work, of course OP isn't unreasonable!

Do not put up with this. Its rude and unprofessional.

OP said she still does the job.

You're paying her to clean your house, not to chat to her mates. I'd accept a one off emergency call or a "i have to ring the Doctors and be on hold (by speakerphone) occasionally but to be consistently talking with the phone in her hand means she's not doing her job properly. Tell her to put her phone away whilst she's cleaning your house or she'll be sacked. Then sack her if she does it again.

She doesn't do a good job. That isn't acceptable.

But you can’t say that’s because she’s on the phone or not. That could just be generally how she cleans. Getting off the phone wouldn’t change that. So if it’s not up to OPs standards, then it’s fine to say that. Although she didn’t.

Ours talks almost the entire time that she cleans but she is hands free with AirPods, does an amazing job and she talks quietly, so we don’t mind. If it’s interrupting her work then that’s not on!

I had a cleaner at the office that was on the phone while cleaning - she did a good job and I wasn't in the vicinity whilst she was doing it - the difference was she asked if that was OK. You have said its not and asked for her not to be on the phone due to WAH situation, so she shouldn't do it. I wld spk to manager again and say if she can't clean without being on the phone and disruptive to your work she needs to change her out for someone else

She’s cleaning with 1 hand because she’s holding a phone in the other, how can she possibly be doing as good a job as she’d do if she had the use of both hands?

Whether she CAN be on her 'phone, is different to whether she SHOULD - she's AT WORK for gods sake, put the bloody thing away!

You need to tell her please no personal calls during work. What can she do other than stop or leave?

My previous cleaner used to be on the phone constantly, phone on loud speaker in one hand. She was pretty careless with some of my possessions access eventually it was the full bottle of my perfume she smashed without saying anything that led to me sacking her.

My last but one cleaner would sometimes take calls, but he would be on headphones and they wouldn’t be long (literally just answering and talking for about a minute) so I didn’t really mind. He would listen to podcasts or an audiobook whilst cleaning, again on headphones. But I would definitely not accept someone chatting on the phone the whole time, and especially not if it meant they were cleaning one handed. It’s disruptive and disrespectful of the fact you are paying her to focus on cleaning your house, it’s not a secondary activity to her social life.