How to tell cleaner she’s doing a crap job…….

[Rugrats103]

Obviously nicely, but I’m throughly fed up tbh.

Old cleaner who was with us for 4 years was absolutely fantastic, really thorough with great attention to detail but she decided to move into a different career and gave up her business in June.

Lady who I walk the dogs with in my village recommended her cleaner of 10 years, said she was amazing etc.

Said cleaner started in July and I’m honestly completely baffled as to how other lady could say she’s amazing (unless of course it’s just my house she’s not doing a good job in)

She’s meant to come for 2 hours a week, yet every week she leaves 20-30 mins early, if I’m WFH she sticks her head into my study and cheerfully says ‘right I’m done, see you next week’ Annoyingly I’m always just about to have a meeting or really busy with stuff and so to be fair, I kind of just say oh okay thanks and then off she goes.

When I then go round and see what she’s done, quite often things just aren’t clean. Kitchen sink left with marks all in it still, the tap all still covered in watermarks and just blatently not been cleaned. Hob not been touched?!

Upstairs it’s just similar again, showers still looking grubby, there are a few shampoo bottles on the side of the bath in the main bathroom and when I picked them up, there was the dirty imprint of the bottom of them on the bath so she’d obviously not even bothered to pick them up, just wiped around them.

When she first came she said ‘ohhh, your house is so easy to clean because it’s already so clean and tidy’ I think trying to justify why she was leaving early as she left early from day 1! She’s right in that I do keep the house very tidy as I can’t stand mess etc but after a week, it’s definitely not clean. Showers/ baths/ sinks etc all still dirty. Kitchen worktops have sauce splashes on them, the hob has the same etc just usual weekly dirt.

For context it’s a big, 4 bed detached and when I clean it easily takes me 2.5 hours and that’s obviously not a deep clean, just a general clean of all the rooms and hoovering the whole house.

Has anyone ever had to give constructive criticism to a cleaner? I’m unsure how to say anything without offending her, hence why I haven’t said anything up til now. The only thing I’ve said is a couple of weeks ago ‘if you could just make sure the hob gets cleaned, that’d be great’ after yet another week of the hob being missed. She did it that week but then last week it was missed again.

I feel like I should give her a chance to rectifying things before making the decision to get rid (she is a lovely lady in all other respects) but I’m worried about offending her.

I think I'd just find someone else. It doesn't sound as if she's going to stick to doing everything for long.

I get she's rubbish at her job so get a better cleaner but I'm sorry to say having a cleaner surely doesn't mean you don't bother to wipe a cooker area of food that has splashed on it or wipe up a mark on bath left by spilled shampoo ?
I've never had a cleaner and won't say I never would , but if I had one I would still wipe down surfaces and be tidy as I go .

Just let her go
" cant budget for a cleaner currently"
Then look for a new one

Why are you worried about offending her? You pay her for two hours and she leaves 30 minutes early every time. So, over the course of the last two months, you overpaid her 4-6h. You wouldn't accept this from any other business.
Either give her feedback and hope for the best or tell her you are not happy with the quality of the clean and that you won't be requiring her to come back.

Not really the point of the thread is it?
I have never had a cleaner either but the Op isnt getting the service shes paid for

Oh I do usually clean up every spillage etc. It’s just a couple of weeks ago I had the (admittedly stupid) thought of perhaps things need to look really dirty for her to clean them so in the day or so before she’s due I stopped mopping up every little spillage etc in the hope it might kick her into action……nope.

Make her a list.

When she says "time to go" reply with "oh - is it x time already" (x obviously being the 2 hour time frame). If still no improvement I'd let her go. Just say "we've decided to see if we can manage doing it ourselves - it's only 2 hours".

Just sack her and get another one. She’s lazy and rubbish.

Agreed this is so fundamentally someone whose not cut out to do the job you want, you can’t coach her.

It’s not spilled shampoo it’s the ring the bottle makes. My electric toothbrush does the same. I wipe most days but if it was the day the cleaner was coming and I’d not done I’d expect them to see it.

If she has been cleaning your friends house for 10 years she should know what the job involves so I wouldn’t bother saying anything I’d just find someone else.

Did you not give a list of what you wanted done each week as non negotiable, and then things she could do as extras if there is time left over?

Think about what it is you’re setting her to do, and whether it’s achievable in 2 hours. The whole house is too much as you yourself know. I set our cleaner a list every week, for example, the living room, utility room and kitchen. The kitchen floor takes 20 mins alone. List on that what you’d expect ‘kitchen’ to cover, eg cleaning hob, floor, work surfaces.
how do you pay her? Afterwards by bank transfer? In that case, if she leaves early you pay her for 1hr 40mins or whatever it was. She will have to raise the issue if she thinks she’s been underpaid.

with all this though, I’ve found that a bit of performance management usually ends up in a resignation anyway, so you will be looking for another cleaner soon enough.

Yeah, if I ever had a cleaner I’d expect them to clean my hob and bath for splashes, the reason I’d be paying is that I wouldn’t need to do the nloody cleaning.

If you takes you 2.5 hrs to not do a deep clean, how can you expect someone to do a thorough clean in 2 hours?

It’s not up to you to coach her. She’s not putting in the agreed time or effort. I’d tell her that due to the house not being as clean as you expect and her leaving early that this set up clearly isn’t working so you will no longer require her services.

Well firstly, I would only pay for the hrs she has worked. When she comes next time point out stuff that hasn’t been done and ask her if she needs extra time. You are worried about offending her but isn’t worried about not doing the hours!

This.

If she's only got 2 hours maybe she's doing a (very!) light touch in all rooms.
Might be better if you tell her what you want specifically doing. That might mean some rooms don't get done at all in the time.

ETA: if you give her specific tasks that you know will take 2 hours, if she leaves early and they're not complete you have goid grounds to cut her loose. Hopefully she'll do them properly and need to stay the full agreed time

The trouble is, my old cleaner used to only do the kitchen diner and the bathrooms when she came. Didn’t touch any other rooms, those took her 2 hours, because she did a thorough clean.

I was happy with that, but when my current cleaner came she said ‘oh, I’ll do your whole house in 2 hours’ I said really?! She was like yes, I said well please only do what you can get done as there’s no expectation for you to do the whole house.

I had a horrible feeling when she said that that her cleaning wouldn’t be great if she thought she could get the whole house done in 2 hours. I mean, you could, but not to a very good standard and she’s not even taking 2 hours. She’s leaving after an hour and a half most weeks!

My worry for getting rid of her is that she lives close by and I see her a lot out and about. Also, the lady who recommended her to me I think a lot of and I know she in turn thinks a lot of this cleaner so I worry about offending her or whatever by getting rid of the cleaner.

Batshit I know. I’m a really bad people pleaser, argh.

It sounds like she just isn't suited to being a cleaner! Maybe your friend has very low expectations.

You aren't under any obligation, just say I went be needing you after this week. If she asks why then tell her that you need someone who can do the full time you've booked as cutting it short means nothing is being cleaned properly. If she asks for another chance say no thanks I'm going to do it myself which you will while you're looking for someone else.

At least this experience has helped work out what your minimum requirements are and what you are looking for. I don't have a cleaner at the moment but I can remember getting fed up with the ones who seemed to spend most of the time wiping surfaces that were already clean and emptying nearly empty bins and ignoring stuff that actually needed doing, even if I left a list of please do this/ please don't do that. The next time I get a cleaner my no 1 requirement will be someone who opens their eyes and sees what actually needs doing.

Regarding the cleaning around stuff rather than picking it up, you'll get more for your money if you have a basket in each room to put toiletries and knick knacks out of the way so cleaner can get to the surfaces. When I did this it was also actually a useful exercise in thinking "do i need all this stuff on the shelves/ can I chuck some of it/ can some if the lesser used stuff go into a cupboard?"

Another vote for make a list, with weekly basics (eg, hoover through, clean sinks/loos), and rotating monthly spot targets (eg, kitchen windows, fridge). It’ll either focus her mind, or offend her into resigning so you can find a better cleaner.

I agree that's why I said get another . My point is the op has a cleaner for 2 hours ( if she stays the full time ) but to keep a house clean of spills & splashes takes input from the person who sees / does it .
The cleaner can't wipe / pick up everything plus Hoover / dust/ scrub the whole house , change bedding etc etc in that time and jobs that should have been done in seconds when they first happen .

You are losing money every week. That would make me so annoyed!

Find your anger and sack her now! Or you’ll need to pay her a Christmas bonus! And maybe even holiday pay!