If you have a cleaner would this bother you?

[Gymmum82]

We’ve had a cleaner for maybe the last 6 months. I pay her for 2 hours a week. She’s great. Does everything I ask her to and does a really nice job, I’m very happy with her.
However in the beginning she’d stay the full 2 hours and now today she was here 1 hour and 10 minutes. Most weeks it’s between 1.10-1.20.
I know because we have a doorbell camera so I see her come and go.

Would this bother you?
Part of me thinks I’m paying for 2 hours. But the other part thinks why should she be penalised for being efficient?

YABU she’s taking you for a mug and you should sack her

YANBU she’s doing a great job and good on her for being efficient

If she does a good job and didn’t miss stuff or leave stuff I wouldn’t say anything

think of it as a fixed fee of cleaning the house

if you made a huge mess one week would it still be sorted

be diff if things weren’t clean to your standard

your could beg rid and get someone else and thy take 2hrs and be stuff not done

Not being unreasonable. Either be paid for the work or the time. Talk to her about using time better or start paying her for the work done.

I like hearing about the cultural differences too. I'm from Spain and can't understand why people don't talk more straight in other cultures ie. UK. You are paying an hourly rate. We all know that spending 3h cleaning has a different result than 1.5h. Saying that you don't mind a person spending half of the time its more to do with feeling unconfortable with the conversation and prefer to continue paying resenting her which is bokers. I had this issue with my cleaner. She started taking the piss doing 2h instead of 3. After 3 times doing this I had an honest and straight forward conversation. I said I like the way she cleaned but noticed she was leaving very early which was my only problem. I did say I don't mind the odd day for her to leave early for an emergency but not as something to do every week. She looked confused and said nobody ever told her that and apparently she does that in every house. I believe her, every other person might hate it but say nothing. I can say that I feel she is now doing a fantastic job. She is very good, i dont ask her for anything unreasonable but she does it to a high standard. Leaves on time. We have a great relationship, and I always get her small gifts at Christmas, birthday etc. You can be honest and have a good and respectful relationship at the same time.

I don’t understand this. I’m employed for 7 hours a day in the office. If I do my work in 5 then I can’t just bugger off home! I would have to find something else to do to fill the time.

Got rid of

Such an awful phrase, especially about a human being.

Mine does this. It’s annoying but she’s reliable and I trust that she won’t let the cat out. She does an ok job.

I don't want a cleaner anymore for the same reason I don't want to be a manager anymore.

Managing adults is a bloody nightmare. People winge about teenagers (I'm a secondary teacher) but teenagers are a walk in the park compared to adults.

Adults take the absolute piss. They seem to come in two categories. Either they take pride in their work or they are lazy and do the bare minimum. All of the cleaners (5) I've had OTHER than one fell into this category. I'd rather do it myself. Unfortunately, while I'm a good teacher, I'm a shit cleaner.

You either charge by the hour or you charge by the job. If your working hours are 9am- 5pm and you left every day at 4.10pm guess what your boss would say?

Yes it Would bother me, as she’s only there for half the time (approx) that you’re paying her.

Add some extra jobs on, and if she protests that she hasn’t got time, then be honest and say that the Ring doorbell notifies you when people leave the property, and that she’s been regularly leaving early.

She is delivering the service. It wouldn’t bother me at all if all the required cleaning was done to a standard I was happy with.

Yes she's taking the piss??

I would say I noticed it's not taking you as long as we thought so would you prefer to just be paid for what you do or do a few additional extras eg. Strip and make the beds to make up the time? Either is fine by be

Add more on the list. She is going over the hour and trade people tend to charge an extra hour despite only working a few minutes over .

Yes, very severely. s/he's not paid per task, s/he's paid per hour. If the tasks given don't take that long either work slower or be honest and request more work. Or if you're going to leave after 1 hour 10 mins that's all you charge for.

You should've called her out on this the very first time. Now she thinks you can see she's doing it and you're not bothered. She must know you have cameras?

How much do you pay?

if she does everything you want, i think it’s fine to
knock off early

When mine started doing this I paid her for the time. She then questioned me. I told her she had only done x amount so I paid her for x amount

if you pay for time then they should be finding other stuff to do and unless you live in a tiny shoe box studio there is no way she’s doin the full house in 2 hours. She could be doing blinds / windows/ skirting boards etc

This

Exactly this! Why would she want the job for 1.5 hours?

Yes, the service of 2 hours worth of cleaning. Like my service is 40 hours a week worth of my job.

The only thing that would make me a bit sympathetic to her knocking off early is if you were paying a crappy wage.

We used to have a cleaner, and if they managed to skip off early after doing all the tasks they were set then fair play to them. I don't think they should be penalised for being efficient. As long as the work is to the standard you set them who cares.

I pay for two hours a week but specific agreed tasks, clean large kitchen, three bathrooms and downstairs toilet and hoover through. Sometimes she’ll dust random places and me and her will chin wag a lot, sometimes she’s in and out. If we aren’t here she’ll often power through and be done in 90 minutes. But I know she’s pushed hard to do that.

I value her and the job she does so I’m happy. As it’s an agreement to do a partial clean for me, she can leave when she’s done that. If I asked for as much as possible in two hours, I’d be less happy.

I refuse to believe that there's nothing else you could do in the house with that half an hour, either by being told by the homeowner what to do or using your own initiative.

These threads always split into:
She's doing the required tasks so who cares how long it takes
and
I'm paying for x hours so they should do extra tasks to fill the time if they finish the other tasks early

I'm in the latter camp. I don't understand why people think it's ok for someone to rush a job or over quote on time and then leave early, and it just be one of those two options.

But then, I also think most cleaners do a half arsed job, what I would call a quick flick round rather than a proper clean. It's impossible to find a proper cleaner these days.

I've had cleaners and I've been a cleaner, and I would never have left early or just done a quick flick round like cleaners seem to do now.

you pay her for 2 hours

just say, in writing

oh I see you only stayed for 1 hour and 10 minutes, as you are short on work I can get you a list of other cleaning jobs that need doing next time. Then we can tick those jobs of weekly as its only taking you 70 minutes to clean the house