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 think she would be horrified if she realised I knew she was leaving early.
Let her know you have installed a Ring doorbell, so you know when people are on the property. It doesn't have to be accusatory, just so you're aware, we are installing a Ring doorbell for security. I wanted to inform you so you wouldn't think I was keeping an eye on you....

I would start to pay her for the exact time she does. When she asks why, tell her.

What do you mean? Lots of small jobs can take 10 minutes.

Clean out the kitchen sink
Wipe counters
Dust bookshelves or wjndowsills
wipe out the bath
Wipe the dining table and chairs down
Clean the fridge/freezer drawers

I don’t just go home early when I finish my tasks at work… I find something else to do

Most of those things on the list would already be done. I don't think cleaning out the fridge takes 10 minutes, it takes me much longer and I don't want a cleaner rooting through the food on my fridge.

Sorry that was for @PigeonsandSquirrels

@saveforthatapologies I meant cleaning the doors not drawers 🤦🏼‍♀️

People who WFH in such a way are usually salaried not paid hourly…

She does that every week though. I honestly think my whole flat takes het exactly 1hr 50 mins. She is brilliant and I'm happy to pay her for the extra 10 mins as I have had rubbish cleaners in the past.

deduct twenty minutes worth of wages from her pay packet. See what she says or does. If she raises it you confront her. If she says nothing she knows you’re onto her and you can see what happens next time. And as for a bonus …….

You wouldn’t think twice about sacking her if you’d seen her taking cash from your purse for nothing. That’s more or less what she’s done though in reality.

personally I would just tell her I am terminating her services on the basis that the ring doorbell camera has told me everything I need to know about what non existent services I have been paying for on at least one occasion and she is not being honest. If you can’t trust someone that comes into your home on a professional basis to do a job then there is no basis to continue to employ them.

Well if i am paying for 2 hours, I expect 2 hours, not 1 hour and 40 minutes

Gosh! The irony of you passive-aggressively pointing out my passive aggression is just priceless 👌

It is indirect. I also explicitly pointed out that it wasn't subtle, so not really sure what you think you're adding with your comment.

FYI, I think its perfectly acceptable to be patronising to someone nicking 20 minutes pay on a regular basis.

And it is nicking, because she's being paid for her time, not the tasks completed. She could have been honest.

All she will do instead is sit on her phone for 20 minutes on your sofa! Prob with a cuppa too.

The best thing to do is say “I noticed that you manage to clean the house in 1.5 hours, so going forward these will be your hours and pay will be £30”

I'd be annoyed too, especially since she always stays the full 2 hours when you are home...but be mindful she is not your "employee", she runs her own business. If shes good at the actual cleaning part then likely she will be in demand and won't think twice about dropping you as a client if you try to decrease her pay/make a passive aggressive statement/threat/etc.

Just give her a list of jobs, like cleaning the oven, fridge, cleaning cupboards out, etc and say if you get a chance can you work through this list over the next few months please if you've got any time to spare.

Arguably my comment is rather aggressive, but not passive aggressive. I think your proposed speech to the cleaner would go down extremely badly. If somebody spoke to me like that I would be temporarily floored and then give notice.

Yes, sack her, Do your own cleaning.

Are you always this cheap I would be embarrassed to admit to only paying a service worker forty dollars ewwh can she even fill up her car?
Or buy cleaning supplies?

You comment was direct, not aggressive, until you added the "Gosh".

And I would never leave early if I was being paid for my time.

So if you were leaving early and chose to resign after I made it known that i knew you were snaking off early instead of adjusting your behaviour, frankly i wouldn't accept you working your notice and you'd be gone on the spot. Tough if that leaves you short because you're losing your house cleaning and business cleaning contract.

Guessing the cleaner can't take the hit of losing both jobs with no notice though sonic you were her, it would be a poor idea.

Given you’re not paying them minimum wage I’d say you’re the one taking the piss no?