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.

Honestly I would let her go and look for a new cleaner.

Can I ask why? I thought cleaners were self-employed and set their own rates etc?
Not many cleaners are employed.
Just tell her you don’t need her services any longer and book someone else!
Maybe you friend doesn’t class water marks as dirt!

It's a nightmare. I like to use someone local and recommended rather than an agency but then if it goes wrong you have this problem.
I think I agree that you need to sack her. I've done this before with one who was a dark cloud of doom and constantly complaining about everything. I just said we were going to manage ourselves. We gave it a few weeks and found someone new.

I would say that two hours isn't long for a four bedroom house. Mine is a big four bed and I have never had a cleaner who could do a proper job under four hours.

I'm currently trying to find someone new after my last lovely cleaner gave it up.

Do your own cleaning problem solved and money saved.

She's obviously not very good so either tell her the problems and give her a chance to fix them or make up an excuse to get rid of her. She has no shame about leaving early so don't be ashamed of telling her stuff she has missed. I'm a cleaner and I would never leave early. I normally stay 5 to 10 mins after because I want to get as much finished as possible.

If you want to get rid of her you just say you are going to try and save some money and see if you can manage without the luxury of a cleaner

WTF?

It's entirely irrelevant what your friend thinks.

This cleaner isn't meeting your expectations and if she's the sort of person who doesn't clean to a good standard, you need to give her the boot.

FFS that isn't the point of this thread.

Stupid post. I'd love to do my own cleaning, sadly stage 4 cancer has put paid to such activity. Even if someone is fit and well, why should I clean if I don't want to? Would you say service your own car if the garage did a good job?

You could say you can't afford a cleaner. Or when she arrives say you are probably going to be in a meeting but if she has any time spare from the two hours please can she focus on -the hob -any other jobs she's been missing, maybe on a list?

Do it yourself.... 😂

The arrangement isn't working for you and in my experience this doesn't get any better. You should only need to mention once about things like wanting her to do the hob. If you've already done that then it's time to move her on

Either give her a very clear list of what she needs to clean, only pay her for the time she does or just say this isn't working for you and get rid.
I had to ditch my cleaner after 10+ years. Overall she was pretty good but did have to nag her to clean certain parts of the house. She never left early tho!

I am in pretty much the same boat but I pay for two hours for a two bed flat and she only cleans one bedroom. I usually go out when she cleans and when I come back it looks as if everything has just been wiped over quickly with dust towards the back of surfaces, hob smeary etc. This is my third cleaner and she is local, first two were from an agency and just kept not turning up. I'm staying in this week to see what she does.

Why not sit down with a cup of coffee with her and say could you have a bit of a reset. That you’d like her to concentrate on the kitchen/diner and. bathrooms. Not to worry about the rest of the house. But you’d like her to do the full 2 hours as it’s a big house and 2 hours is what it needs to keep those rooms up to scratch.

Just get a new cleaner. Don't do what my old boss who I was housekeeper for and say I caused her wife to go to a&e with her asthma cos my dusting of their bedroom wasn't good enough

I would treat this the same as at work - have a look and give feedback on what’s wrong. When she says she’s going it there’s 30 mins still to go “Before you go, can you dust the skirting boards please?”

Another approach could be at the start- “can you make sure the kitchen is tidy before you go? Let me know when you’re done.” then look and show her what’s not clean enough.

Or you could give her a task each week in addition to the main clean. So “can you dust the skirting boards/polish the mirrors/wipe the windows” after you’ve cleaned this week please?”

List the things you’re not happy about, take her aside and tell her. But tell her what you want rather than what she’s done wrong so she doesn’t feel too criticised.

Homestly I try to avoid British cleaners since I’ve only ever had one good one and they’re pretty unreliable. The Eastern Europeans cleaners clean to a far higher standard and really make it sparkle. I’m aware this makes me sound like those factory owners who only recruited from Eastern Europe prior to Brexit but I now understand where they were coming from!

@Rugrats103 could you suggest she cleans fewer areas and so does a deeper clean as she won’t be trying to do so
much (and also remind her you expect her to work the full 2 hours then see how it goes) or say you’ve decided to stop having a cleaner (then leave it a few months and get another) if you don’t feel able to deliver the required feedback?

my cleaner does 2 bathrooms and a large kitchen diner in 3 hours a fortnight/hoovers and mops downstairs. Sometimes has a little time over for extras.

Yeah you are and you really need to work on this, as its so detrimentally. You don't need to be rude and if people want to take the huff with you, that's up to them. You don't have to smooth everything over for everyone all the time. It's uncomfortable at first but gets easier with practice. Make an excuse if it makes you feel better. Just say finances have changed and you won't need her going forward. No further elaboration needed either to her or your friend.

FFS the OP has hired a cleaner … to clean. She’s said her house is mostly tidy, which her cleaner has acknowledged. If the OP is to clean everything, she wouldn’t need a cleaner, would she??

I hardly think you shouldn’t expect a cleaner to lift bottles, etc. when cleaning the shower or bath or any surface. Do you think they should just clean around things??

I had two eastern European cleaners from an agency, their cleaning was ok but they only turned up when they felt like it.

OP, you need to walk through the house with her on her next visit and explain exactly what you need her to do, lift bottles and wipe under them, wipe down worktop, polish taps, etc, etc. Also, just come out and say that you are paying her for XX hours and that is the time it takes to do everything properly.

From my experience what will then happen is that she will contact you and tell you she can’t come again or that nothing will change and you will have to come up with an excuse as why you no longer need a cleaner.

You need to make sure you have no meetings one week in order to have a chat when she arrives. Say that you are finding some areas a bit grubby and please can she pay extra attention to kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Add that you would like her to stay for the full 2 hours and ask if there's any reason she leaves early.
She may get the hump and leave, but I doubt she will tell your friend it was because she leaves early and does a bad job.

@Rugrats103 if you're paying her for 2 hours, then she needs to stay for 2 hours or charge you less.

I think I'd ask her to "just focus her two hours on the bathrooms and kitchen, as they are in need of quite a bit of attention to detail with the cleaning".

I would do this - set really strict boundaries and hopefully she will either up her game or leaves, in which case problem solved. If you are not prepared to do this take a gap and clean yourself for a while and when enough time has passed, interview new cleaners; you were worried about her ftom your first conversation so probably know what questions to ask