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

You have described a rare thing op - a cleaner who is great at cleaning your home!

Despite what others say these type of cleaners are rare. All cleaners I’ve had had been generally rubbish tbh.

The one I use now has been here a year but she’s nothing special- however neither were the others and I can’t keep replacing in the hope of finding an amazing cleaner so I just put up with it.

You pay the woman by the job so I think stick with her or I’m sure she’ll get snapped up elsewhere if u start being demanding

I originally put yanbu, BUT having read your second post, I think YABU.

For what she does, she’s well worth £34 and I wouldn’t want to lose her.

Believe me, excellent cleaners are like finding hen’s teeth.

The hourly rate and the time needed are probably based on the initial discussion with the cleaner though. It’s often the cleaner who says it will take me X hours to cover the schedule/clean this house, so that’s what the client books. In this case it’s nearly an hour less than the time agreed and an honest cleaner would say that the time had been overestimated, either is there anything else to do or shall we reduce the time slot.

A lot of people do tend to take the piss WFH and many employers have clearly noticed a drop in performance and are increasingly requiring employees to come into the office more. How flexible it is when WFH depends on the work, so it might be ok to do the school run and catch up later or it might not. I had to be very clear with one former team member that I couldn’t facilitate them being missing for two school runs = 2.5 hours during the course of every single workday because he was never available for certain essential meetings that couldn’t be moved.

Ha. I’m far from lazy. I get up at 4.30am every day. I take a friend who has cancer and can’t drive to work every day; an hours round trip and that’s before I’ve even started my own day. Then I get my kids to school. I do a full days work 5 days a week. I take my kids to their evening clubs. I don’t sit down until 9pm. There isn’t a minute in my day that isn’t accounted for and weekends I want to spend with my children. Not cleaning my house.
So yeah spend a day in my life and then tell me I’m lazy

You don't need to justify yourself to this person. Their post was EXACTLY why I started the thread I did yesterday about weird attitudes to employing a cleaner. See also that nearly half the people who voted seem to think that you are being unreasonable. If it was anyone but a cleaner who was effectively stealing from you, it would be near enough 100% of people saying YANBU. Insane.

That's really not the point. She is charging an hourly rate, not per job.

The 1950s called, they want their values back. 🙄

Are you seriously trying to shame women for not doing their own cleaning? Would you tell a man to get off his 'lazy arse' and clean his own house?

There is more to life than domestic drudgery. Well, there is for most of us, anyway.

I don’t clean my own home or the flllowing reasons
i can’t be arsed
im chronically ill
I’m shit at it
its boring
I have very low standards and I would go six months between washing the kitchen floor
I don’t want to.

What a ridiculous comment. Just because you like cleaning and have the time, doesn't mean that everyone does.

My cleaner is in the house while I am here and I know when they leave. So this prolem never arises.

You wouldnt be allowed to do that in a professional job - leave early just because you had done your assigned work for the day. Ive been in the position where I worked faster and more efficiently than colleagues and then took on extra jobs for no extra pay. When I realised I was unappreciated I gradually slowed down to the same pace as my peers and dropped the extras.

I would just give her more to do. Finishing 5-10 min in advance is fine, but not 50 min.
When m'y cleaner finishes early, she just check with me whether I need anything else done. If not she leaves. Or sometimes she just notices something that needs doing and proactively uses the time for that.

They are self employed, they could set a higher price per hour, or set a price per job. But if I decide to pay for 2h then that's what I expect to get, give or take 10 min.

I pay £40 for two hours. Sometimes there's not much to do. Although I'm on two sticks I'm told to keep moving so I get some jobs done albeit very slowly and plenty of dropping of bloody sticks. But for a thorough clean there's no-one to touch her. Last week she stormed through the kitchen. All the cupboard doors cleaned, worktops, base boards, flooring. Then hoovering hall, bathroom, mopping, skirtings. Then the sitting room carpet and the conservatory.

Next week she's using a machine to clean the carpets. They're desperately in need.

If everything is done to an excellent standard and you’re happy it’s good time management and efficient. You could always add an extra job for 20 minutes!! I believe happy staff do the best. Value and respect them. If the standard slacks call that out!! But if your happy and trust and she takes the pressure off money well spent… imagine interviewing and doing it all again! 2 hours of poor work x4

I have found in the past with some cleaners they won’t be pinned down on whether they’re paid to the job or the time.

Example:

Me - could you clean xyz whilst you’re here?
Her - I don’t have time
Me - how much extra would I need to pay for you to have time?
Her - I get paid for the job not the time
Me - so could x be included in the job?
Her - no I don’t have enough time

🤦🏻‍♀️

I was going to say ask her to do more things to fill up the time, but it sounds like she already does it!
The best cleaner I ever had was a bit like this. When she'd finished she'd do stuff like go through any baskets of clean laundry and sort it all by size and fold everything super neatly (down to my knickers, which I found excruciating )

How about ironing? I asked this cleaner once if she did ironing for extra money and she said yes, then refused to take the extra as she said it was within her two hours.

I miss her still.

Oh just sod off.
If you don't think people should have cleaners, don't come on threads about them.
Rude.

As long as there's no issues with the work she's done I couldn't give a shit. I'd also expect to pay a full hour for the 20 minutes or whatever anyway.

If she's being less thorough or the clean is of a lower standard than previous then of course I wouldn't be happy.

Why on earth would you pay a full hour for twenty minutes?!

Because time is billed for most services in hour blocks.

And crucially, my cleaner is excellent. I'm very happy with the overall price and couldn't be fucking arsed quibbling over a few quid and upsetting the good relationship we have, and jeopardising the service I receive.

Get off your lazy arse and clean your home yourself..makes me laugh.i come in from work and LOVE keeping my home clean...

Some of us are elderly and/or disabled and no longer able to bend and reach awkward places. If something gets dropped on the floor then it stays there until my cleaner comes as it would not be safe for me to get down. I might not be able to get up or summon help. When you need a stick to walk then you only have one hand free to do everything else, Unfortunately god only gave me two.

Why?

Any other job you might want to outsource to someone else doesn’t get this judgement.

No one says “get off your lazy arse and plumb in your washing mashing, put up those shelves, etc”

Why is it only cleaning that shouldn’t attract payment?

Yep, some people fucking hate cleaning. I am one of them, and my standards are low and I am shit at it anyway.

Exactly. Surely what you’re paying for is an agreed amount of work to an agreed standard. The time it takes to do the work is completely irrelevant isn’t it?

Sh does a good job. I would see what happens over the next few weeks. If it is always just over an hour the decide what to do

£34 for a clean house is good and you trust her and happy with her work

if she said to you I charge £35per house would you be happy to pay that ?

it’s hard to find a good cleaner from what I hear

i don’t have one. But at times I have had one for a one off and one was good.

Other I thought spent forever on the kitchen and didn’t do the whole house - I paid for 6hrs and she said she would come back for another 2hrs to finish off the bathroom

I declined

and then looked for a diff one and found the one above who was good

wish I could afford a weekly one but sadly not

You're paying her for 2 hours so she should be there 2 hours. If she's cleaning to the standard you're happy with & getting everything you want doing done then mention to her if she gets finished early you'll pay her only for the time she's there not the total 2 hours. However, if she wants paying for 2 hours there's other things you could ask her to do like change the beds, clean your oven or fridge or hang washing out in the Summer months.