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 would just get somebody else. If she's hopless she'll never be any good. Then hire somebody else in a few weeks. And say she's a friend looking for work or any lie you can think of. Just saying I sacked her because she's no good is a bit difficult in your situation.

I would give her any feedback. If it’s not working I’d just let her know that you didn’t need her any longer and then get someone else.

This. Cleaning is not thay difficult to do properly, neither is telling the time.

Thoroughly cleaning a 4 bedroom house in 2hrs would be an impossible task. A minimum of 20 minutes per room I would say speaking as someone who has cleaned houses for over 30yrs. Is it just basic hoovering, mopping and dusting or are you wanting woodwork cleaning too for example? She definitely needs reminding that you expect the full two hours or deductions will be made. Personally I would expect showers and kitchen sides to be important in doing a thorough job

Text her and say "Hi, if you have 20-30 minutes left again next week could you please make sure the sink and hob get a really good going over and the shower gets some extra attention? If you have time to move the shampoo bottles on the bath and give that a good wipe too it would be much appreciated. Many thanks"

In my experience it’s not worth the hassle. No matter how nice or constructive you’re trying to be, it’s unlikely she’ll take it well. Would you then want someone resentful cleaning your house? Just a find another cleaner.

This✅

I'm a cleaner (offices, not houses) and would never leave early unless ill, or by prior arrangement. It's breach of contract, and unprofessional.

The person who had my job before me was like your cleaner and despite many training/reminder sessions they were eventually let go as they just didn't have the eye for detail or the work ethic required.

In your shoes I'd have a straight conversation and say it's not working out so it's time to dissolve the arrangement.

I got rid of my cleaner after she 'helpfully' tided my study and piled all my paper work away in boxes. Everything became mixed up. I told her not to touch it, but she blatantly went against my wishes. I'm looking for a new one now!

This is why I use a cleaning company. Firstly the women all get holiday pay etc but secondly I don’t have to give feedback it’s handled and they always have cover if one is on holiday etc. You can either address it directly by saying “sorry I wasn’t very specific when you started but wondered if you can do xyz” or you cancel her and find another

So my plan is to walk her around the house next time she comes, pointing out the things I’d like done, but in a casual ‘oh also if you have time and could ensure these get a good clean as the dirt is starting to build up that’d be great. I’m also going to take pictures before she comes and after. In fact I’ve been taking pictures of things I’m not happy with after she’s left occasionally for a while! Not sure why, perhaps as evidence if I need it.

God thus is all just so awkward and stressful when I could really do without it atm. I have a cleaner to make my life easier, not harder!

Just send a text repeating what shes not done and say you won't be requiring her to return and you get a different cleaner.

YABU for not stopping use of her services. Your feedback plan would also much more awkward, socially, than stopping.

“I won’t be needing you after x date”. Simple and polite. Offer no explanation.

This is an example.

Last visit I noticed the downstairs WC sink hadn’t been cleaned. In fact, I don’t think she’s given it a proper clean ever so I think it’s about 4 weeks build up of dirt and grime since I last gave it a clean.

I cleaned it after she left, I didn’t exactly do a stellar job but all this took is a spray of limescale remover and a light wipe with the scrub daddy and voila. Literally took me 5-10 seconds.

I think you literally need to say 'if you have time left could you do xyz/ask me what else needs doing' to make it clear you want to full time used.

This is the hob that’s been left or her version of cleaned? Now I get it’s not drastically dirty but it clearly is all smeary with some food crusts etc, I wouldn’t consider it clean and if I was a cleaner I would give it a wipe?

Definitely needs a wipe and a quick shine. Just get a different cleaner this one is lazy.

I wouldn't start asking her "if she has time" can she do XYZ. You know she has time, she's leaving 30 mins early.

I'd be inclined to take some photos immediately after the clean and send them to her and say "Hi Jane. I've noticed a few areas that don't look like they've been properly covered this week. As i mentioned initially, no need to try and cram the whole house in to 2 hours if it means having to rush. Let's catch up next time on priority areas".

Honestly just fire her. I wouldn’t want her to stick around moodily cleaning more after I told her it wasn’t good.

Id let her go and say it’s because she wasn’t cleaning to your satisfaction and always charged for 2 hours despite only cleaning for 90 minutes which isnt what you wanted.

Unless your house is a particularly small
four bedroomed house I can see no way anyone could give it a reasonable clean in two hours. Just thinking four bedrooms, quite
likely to be two bathrooms, sitting room,
kitchen, hall/staircase, possibly a utility and downstairs loo equates to 10-15 minutes
on average per room.

I think you’ve set
the cleaner up to fail

Why? I’d explain. She’s doing a crap job and should be told.

You clearly haven’t read my posts 🙄

I clearly told the cleaner that I would be happy for her to just do the kitchen diner and the bathrooms in her 2 hours. SHE told me not to be silly, that she’d easily get the whole house done in that time! It is her that wants to do the whole house and she clearly feels like she does, in 1.5 hours and then leaves and then when I check things after, things are still dirty!

Her leaving early every week is her giving herself a pay rise without even asking you.

We have this exact problem but I'm like 18 months in lol. I do the "can you add in x this week" but apart from stripping the beds she hasn't kept any of them going.
Known a few cleaners over the years and most were super energetic and obsessive with cleaning their own places so I kinda expected mine to be like that here but sadly not...
Its still better than no cleaner and cheap enough so I just plod on. Didn't realise quite how this would read back, I maybe need to take action too