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

This. She is virtually doing half the time you are paying her for. That's a piss take. I'm sorry, but if she is doing everything you want her to in 70 minutes, then you need to change her hours from 2 hours a week to 1. She is being paid for 2 hours FGS. As someone said earlier, you don't need to be arsey with her, just say you noticed her leaving shortly after an hour, and would like to revise the hours (or hour!)

As a pp said, I am wondering how she can do such a spectacular job of cleaning your house in 70 minutes though. Is she Mary Poppins? Or is your house reaaaaaaaallllly tiny?

@Iamsotiredandfedup- It's not dishonest if you're up front. It's good business sense. Lots of self employed people have minimum booking requirements. Your time and service are valuable and in demand so it makes sense.

Yup.. taking the piss. Tell her you’ve seen her leave early every time so hope that she’s ok with adding on a few jobs. Don’t give her the chance to drag out what she currently does.

Oh completely agree that if it’s upfront then it’s fine, it’s the not mentioning it that wouldn’t like. Also unless a client lives in a shed I think there’s always something else that needs cleaning

Leaving 50 minutes early is dishonest, even if the work is done. She overestimated the time and is still charging you for it. Add more tasks to her list. If she refuses or still leaves early, fire her.

@Zovyou can't just change a cleaners hours. You could say can I just have 1 HR instead of 2?. If they're smart they would say no sorry it's minimum 2 hrs. And you could look for a new cleaner.

It takes me nearly 2 hours to clean my 3 bed house twice a week and it’s never dirty as there’s only 2 adults living here and it gets hoovered every day, I’d be having a chat with her to find out exactly what she does every visit.

I pay my cleaners for the job to be done, and don’t think about the time. She’s been with me 8 years, sometimes she’s here for an hour, other times I’ll come home and she’s randomly spent a day taking every item out in the kitchen and doing a complete declutter.

either way the house looks amazing when she leaves and I trust her.

I find it hard to believe anyone can clean to a good standard in that time. I’ve taken over cleaning of houses and so many are so sub par. you can tell skirting boards have not been cleaned in a long time for a start. Or behind sinks and toilets.

I’m not sure why anyone would pay for a cleaner just to do a quick whizz of the floor with a hoover and a mop. Then a wipe over of a bathroom. Surely if you have a cleaner you want them to actually clean over kitchen cupboards. Scrub the hob, descale the shower etc. seems a waste of money otherwise! I do a an average of 3 hours everywhere I clean and there’s always more I could find to clean.

I think it depends on what she is achieving in the time she is there.
If it is an amount that would reasonably take 2 hours at a steady pace, and she is zooming round and working harder/faster then its no big deal.
I'd maybe try adding the odd extra thing on though, like a fridge clean.

Neither. She’s brilliant, so don’t sack her.
But she’s not fulfilling her contract with you, so leave her a list of jobs to get on with once she’s finished your ‘core’ clean.
Get the time you’re paying for.

Ours occasionally leave 5-10 minutes early if she’s finished. She’s great and definitely goes above and beyond so I don’t mind this. We have a three bed house with two kids and we pay for three hours. I wouldn’t be happy if she left 50 minutes early! If she’s got extra time, that I’m paying for I’d either pay her less or want other cleaning jobs doing.

That’s a deep clean. Fair enough if you’re paying for a deep clean each week.

It's hard but that's a real piss take. My cleaner does half an hour less some days but then will do more some days.

I don't think it's a matter of being efficient. I think it's a lazy half arsed job. At the end of the day a hoovering or wiping or dusting is not going to be as good if it's quick or if its thorough.

Just say you notice she's been doing 75 minutes so why don't you make that the new arrangement.

When I had a cleaner she would stay for the agreed time. She’d do a normal clean and then with whatever time she had left over she’d do jobs that need doing once in a while like cleaning the oven, sorting the airing cupboard. She would do ironing, change the kids beds, empty my kids display cabinet that had his football trophies in and give it a good polish. She’d only do these things once or twice a year, but she wouldn’t clear off an hour early.

No it can't. I used to be a cleaner and I was fast and efficient but there's no way any house can be cleaned in less than two hours. It takes 30 minutes for a bathroom to be cleaned properly and 30 minutes for a kitchen. And then maybe fifteen minutes for each room. And not sure why skirting boards is an extra job! Or how anyone can say they've finished in 1.5 hours....there's always something else to do.

I think it's not something easy to say. But you can make it short and factual. "I like your cleaning standards so I am happy with your work. But I noticed you only are doing half/ 70% of the time. I don't mind if you have an emergency and need to leave early. But in daily basis I would like you to keep the agreed time". After i talked to her I noticed she is also open with me and i like that. She sometimes tells me she wants specific cleaning products as work better than others and i do whatever is easiest for her. It does work. I think its worth trying :) Best of luck!

I do plan before hand what needs doing. And if she has time can she clean some windows or a couple of kitchen cupboards. She's so fast if she needs to finish early to collect a grandchild I shoo her out.

I'd sack her for dishonesty

See to me thats just basic cleaning. Interesting. Deep cleaning to me would be things like cleaning out kitchen cupboards, wiping down doorframes, walls, radiators, handles, light switches etc and I still do bits like that if I have time.

To me my basics are cleaning floors, skirtings, hoovering cobwebs, steaming/mopping floors, cleaning windowsills and ledges, wiping all kitchen surfaces, the hob and cupboard doors. Cleaning bathroom sink/ toilet, bath and shower and behind these areas. Emptying bins. Those are the bare minimum to me. But I do these things some daily/ all weekly in my own home and always have so maybe my standards are just very high!

I’ve been through multiple cleaners and they’ve all classed skirting boards/wood work as a deep clean and charge an extra £5 an hour if we want it!

Can I ask why you don’t do other jobs to make it up to 2 hours, cupboards, skirting boards , blinds ect? that’s what I would expect

You’re paying for 2 hours and she isn’t that good that she can do the work in half the time. She’s stealing from you.

She can be doing other one off jobs in that 50 mins. You’re paying her when she’s left or doing other jobs. Yes this would bother me. Next time let her know there are some one off jobs you need doing as you notice she finishes well before the 2hrs. So fridge clean, clean skirting boards etc.

i used to work in a small office where we had cleaners, the partner of the cleaner would often do it instead of her which I found a bit odd. One day we had a company come touting for new business and they showed us areas in the toilet and on the glass reception counter which hadn’t been cleaned so they were obviously cutting corners. I sacked them after that and got the new cleaners. I suspect the old ones had been leaving early too but generally most people had left the office so couldn’t see their timings.

I think either give her more tasks to do but let her know you can see she’s left by x time and even say you think it’s dishonest. If she does a good job otherwise and you like her then base it on that. Though she works for herself you do employ her.

I can’t believe there are so many dishonest cleaners out there as pp say in any other job you’d get found other work to do if you’d finished your tasks early or you’d be sacked if you were dishonest and left early.