To sack cleaner for leaving early …

[Confused19831983]

My cleaner is paid £20 per hour for two hours a week. I tip her £100 at Xmas.
She has been cleaning for me for about four years.
I recently installed a ring doorbell due to the theft of a car on my street.
I can now see that she leaves 20 to 25 mins early every week.
If I happen to be in the house during the clean she stays for the allotted time.
I am largely happy with her clean though there is definitely more she could be doing. I live in a medium sized house.
First world problem, I know, but AIBU to say something?
I would never have known if I hadn’t installed the ring doorbell.
I thought I had a good relationship with her, and it feels like a bit of a betrayal.

I don't think you should sack her. Point out you are paying per hour and say if she has 20 minutes left could she (insert any 20 minute task here). The thing is it's hard to fit cleaning exactly into precise hours. My cleaner leaves at 10 to the hour but honestly what can you do for 10 minutes?

Ask her why she leaves early and tell her to make up the time, 2 hours not paid will cover 4 weeks leaving early.

Why would you not say something? You’re paying for two hours you get two hours. I’d say you’ve noticed that she’s getting the cleaning done in 90 minutes, so can she please add task x and y before she leaves. And I definitely wouldn’t be giving her a bonus.

You can do quite a lot in 10 minutes, hoover a room, wash skirting boards, dust ..endless list. Surely the point is, that if you're paid for 2 hours, then you work for 2 hours.
OP I think you should say something along the lines of " I notice you left 25 mins early last week and the week before, could you make that time up? There's lots that still needs doing, eg clean out the kitchen cupboards/bathroom cabinets/whatever. "
I don't see how anyone could effectively clean a house in an hour and a half.

I’d say I’ve noticed you leave twenty minutes early would you prefer to reduce your hours or are you happy to do extra jobs to take you to the full two hours?
Then I would not give her the bonus this year to make up some of the lost time.

Leave her a list of tasks that you know will take longer than the allotted time. Put them in order of priority and tell her to work down the list but don't worry if she runs out of time and can't fit in the last few tasks in the two hours. Then if she leaves early again, raise it with her.

Sack her off and do your own cleaning, saves money for you.

This is why I don’t bother with cleaners now, I must admit. They just want to be in and out as quickly as possible.

I’ve got this problem. My cleaner told me she can’t complete the tasks in 2 hours, so I upped it to 2.5 hours. There are 3 of them, so that’s an extra £30. It’s not a weekly clean so there is a lot to do.

They started to leave 5, then 10…..then 30 mins early. I’m not usually there, but noticed when I was. The other day I left the house and then my DH came back about 1 hour 45 into their clean and they’d already gone.

I need a cleaner as I work FT, and they are hard to find, but they are taking the piss.

My cleaner does this so I’ve put together a short list of additional things for her such as dust cobwebs around the edges of the ceiling and clean french doors to the garden 🥴

I’m waiting for mine to tell me the price is going up and then I’ll cowardly say I can’t carry on then. What a spineless woman I am.

Then I’m going to buy a robot hoover/ mop and send that round every day and clean myself and spend the £££££££ on myself.

I think it depends on the set up. Do you have a set list of tasks for her to complete while she's there? If so and if she has those tasks done to a reasonable standard then I see no issue with letting her go early. If there are issues with the standard or jobs are not getting done that were agreed then that's a different matter.

I would ask if she's able to complete the work in the time, then if she says yes, add something onto the list.

If she can get it all done that you've asked for in 1.5hrs, then thats the arrangement moving forward and she'll lose out on earnings.

But more sensibly have a list of more sporadic tasks that could done as extras if time permits. There always dusting in hard to reach places etc.

If you're out of the house they could be on their phones / chatting with their friends etc to do the exact time not necessarily cleaning your house. However, if the person is ok and doesn’t steal I’d be tempted just to leave it. You could get someone less efficient for the hours and also steals (sorry had both).

Is it right no but never had a perfect cleaner yet always some issues.

I'm a dog walker and charge for an hour. If I am ever back earlier than expected/paid for for whatever reason I message the person to let them know without fail.
I'll either tell them to pay me less or I'll arrange to take the dog out longer the following time.
I could easily take them back at any time as there isn't anyone in, the dog isn't going to say anything and I know who has cameras but I'm not a scammer and have morals so wouldn't dream of it.
I would definitely say something or cancel her, she doesn't deserve your business.

My cleaner sometimes left early, I didn't care as she did the job really well. She could clean faster than anyone I know.

I'd just ask her to do extra jobs each week to fill the time, windows, fridge, oven if that's what you want.

I noticed this too when I got a ring doorbell. I have re-framed it in my head. I pay her £x for doing the cleaning I’ve asked (she doesn’t clean bedrooms). So long as things are cleaned to an acceptable standard her job is done. Makes me feel better about it. I don’t want to do the cleaning and finding a new cleaner is haaaaard! I’ve had really rubbish ones in the past!

Get a ring doorbell

I'll be very honest... if she doesnt steal, isnt damaging your house or ruining the taps by leaving viakal on too long I'd just mention the two hours politely and suggest a couple of periodic jobs that need to be done once a month eg plantation blinds and dusting the ceiling or whatever.which will take it to "2 hours" and I'd turn a blind.eye or 5 or 10 mins.

Good cleaners are like good men.... HARD to find...

There are two ways of doing it. One is to give the cleaner specific list of things to do and they can go when they’ve done them. This is an obvious incentive to work quickly. The other is to pay an hourly rate and expect the cleaner to do as much as they can in that time. The problem with that is that the cleaner can be as slow as they like. What’s not on is for the cleaner to leave before that time if there are jobs that could be done. What I would do in this situation is say to the cleaner that as you’ve noticed certain jobs need keeping on top of that you would now rather them work through a fixed list of jobs. Give them two hours’ worth. They are free to go early if they complete them before that. They are good cleaners but aren’t completely trustworthy then that’s what you’ll have to do.

We have a good,
long term cleaner who also began doing similar.

after it became regular, I said ‘I noticed you’re leaving by 2.30 these days… shall we cut back to 2.5 hours in future or would you prefer to do additional things’?

the additional things became the regular choice.

This. A lot of occupations would regard what she is doing as fraud

I'm confused by people claiming nothing can be done in 10 minutes. Of course they can

i fired a cleaner for this although i was paying for 4 hours and she was leaving after 3. i told her there were things left undone and she said she couldn’t stay longer because she had another job to get to. she would have been happy for me to pay her for 3 but it was the betrayal that annoyed me.

I would say you have noticed she’s getting everything done in less than the allotted time, so you will add x,y, or z to her tasks list each time.

Surely that’s better than sacking her?