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.

You need to point things out and just politely say please make sure you always do this. Physically show her if necessary.
Check that she has enough tasks for the time as well as she's leaving early.
If you do it pleasantly it should be fine and it's about whether she improves once she's clear on what you expect.

I wouldn’t give myself the stress if I lived in a small place , which OP does. There will be awkwardness at the shop! The cleaner is self employed so not raising reasons isn’t unfair, either.

The leaving early wouldnt bother me if the job was done thoroughly but the poor standards along with leaving early would.
Could you give her a list of priorities for cleaning. A things to be done list with better instruction eg: could you clean the sink well and wipe thoroughly as the light in here highlights every streak!

Yes, that’s it.

If she was doing a stellar job I really wouldn’t mind her leaving early, our old cleaner used to often leave 10 mins early and I didn’t care because everything had been done to a high standard. But her leaving so early after doing such a poor job just feels like adding insult to injury!

If you want to try and salvage this (and my advice to you having had numerous cleaners over the years would be not to bother but if you do want to) then write a list of what you want to do that your previous cleaner did and tell her that you only want her to do that list.

Also mention that you've noticed she's been leaving early and that you want her to stay for the full two hours and if she feels she has done everything on the list to find something else to clean, and I would write a supplementary list of things she could then move on to because she clearly isn't someone who uses her own initiative.

I would also say to her let's review this in two weeks time so she knows you'll be keeping an eye on her, and then do review it and if it is still not up to standard let her go, and if it is up to standard keep an eye on her and as soon as it slips let her go.

I'm not saying if it slips because I know from experience that once they start being crap they don't get any better. I have a friend who used to have a very big house and they routinely changed their cleaners every six months because they said that was the maximum amount of time that anybody seemed to do a good job for and after that they got too comfortable and started cutting corners.

You are paying her for a service so don't worry about upsetting her or things being awkward because they don't need to be.

And finally post anonymously on local Facebook groups to find her replacement before you let her go so you don't have a gap.

I had something similar and did a list of what was needed to be done in each room. It worked!

@Rugrats103 what I have grudgingly had to admit is my close eyesight is not great and I sometimes don’t notice marks etc. if the friend who recommended the cleaner is similar, maybe the friend actually hasn’t noticed. But those example photos are terrible! So next time, in your shoes, when she is almost done, I’d actually check her cleaning and if the plug hole was as you showed in the photo, I’d say ‘could you go over this again it doesn’t look clean’. She has obviously got used to doing it more superficially so I’d say ‘I want a deeper clean which is why I don’t think you can do the whole house in 2 hrs’

I would get rid of her and I wouldn't worry about bumping into her. Her leaving so early would drive me crazy - she's just stealing your money. She does a rubbish job, too, so there's no reason at all to keep her on.

If you tell her she's doing a bad job then I think there would be a bad atmosphere - I wouldn't want to be in the house with her after she'd been told that.

If you want to keep using her then I'd just take the approach next time she comes to say
" thank you for offering to clean the whole house in 2 hours but I've decided on reflection that I'd prefer a deep clean of these areas in the 2 hours rather than a light clean across the whole house. So each week can you ensure you do a deep clean of the hob/loos/sinks etc and don't bother about the rest of the house. If you need any different products let me know, I find xx works best on the hob and yyyy on the sinks. If you have any time spare at the end can you please hoover to make up tp the 2 hours. Thank you"

And see if that helps.

Get rid, I’ve had cleaners who were very slack and they just done improve with feedback, they just slip back and you end up wasting too much time monitoring their work.

just get a detailed check list of what you want doing - then get her to tick what she has done each week. Or have separate sheets for each week as sometimes you'll want her to do other stuff

make sure there is enough on the sheet to last 2 hours

then if she leaves early and hasn't ticked all the list - ask her why

I dont pay my cleanly by the hour i pay her an agreed amount for agreed amount of work. So,she leaves when she's completed the agreed work.
I've had cleaners that work super slowly and some that work really fast.
Specify the jobs with clear instruction as to standard (tedious i know)
If no improvement find someone else.

I had a similar issue OP except my cleaner was staying longer as she wanted to clean the whole house!!! The first time I paid her the extra thinking it might have been a one off for the first clean but when she did it the second time I had to say something (I’m on a tight budget and can only just justify having a cleaner two hours a fortnight). I texted her as I found that easier (and it was all in writing). Gave her specifics of what I wanted doing and what could be left for me to do. Also stated she really must not go over her time as I couldn’t afford to pay her more.

For you I would send a text along these lines: “Hi X, thank you for your suggestion that you clean the whole house but I don’t think it’s working for me. I have decided I would much prefer a deep clean of the kitchen and diner and the bathrooms (this is what my previous cleaner did). I can handle the rest of the house myself. Also please can you make sure you are staying the whole two hours I pay for. If you find you have extra time after doing the kitchen/diner and bathrooms, then please move on to things in other rooms (I can give you a list if you’d like?). Thank you and see you next week”

I’d make a time to sit down with her and go through what your expectations are. Something like “we don’t get to speak when you’re leaving usually so wanted to make a time to discuss how it’s going”.

Then explain to at you asked for two hours because you need x y z jobs done. And that kitchen and bathrooms done thoroughly is your priority.

Tell her that your experience is that it does take two hours to do it in the way you want it done.

I'm like you. Keep my place clean and tidy, and have a cleaner to do the deep clean of bathrooms/kitchens/hoover. I too have high standards, and the day my cleaner comes is my happy day. You should absolutely change cleaners. If someone doesn't have attention to detail, they just don't. The leaving early when you pay by the hour is also not acceptable. They are providing a service you are paying for. It is a business transaction. It needs to work for you.

But the cleaner leaves early so this doesn’t make sense.

Just get rid.

Just tell her you don't need her anymore. Give her a couple of weeks notice. Look for a better one.

I agree she is unlikely to improve.

I feel your pain op. I’d never had a cleaner but then trusted a local advert around Easter time . She told me all the deep clean nonsense (it’s either clean or it isn’t ). She charged a
lot but said she was worth it. Blah blah. Came for 3 hours but only ever did 2.15 to 2.5- I’m dine, see you next week type shit!! The cleaning was not deep, was not light touch bullshit, but was, not cleaned! Said things like, only a light touch today as done deep the week before! There were still cobwebs in a corner type thing. Utter crap so I text to say thank you but we’ll leave it for now. I’ll do it myself / lower my standards

get Rid!

I just told mine it wasn’t working out
and then got a new one who actually cleans

I’ll do your whole home in 2hrs

Id treat it just as I would at work, start by assuming she is trying to do a good job and is capable of doing a good job. I also think people deserve to know when there are mismatched expectations.

You were expecting her to do as you previous cleaner did, she had other ideas. Now is the time to reopen that conversation

So, make sure you are free next time she comes, thank her and tell her that you have decided you would prefer her to focus on the things … and describe the outcomes you want.

Make sure she understands you want a deep clean of just those areas.

Make sure you are free before the end of her slot , perhaps at the 20min mark when she says she is done, to review how much she had managed to get done. If it’s almost there, explain what else you want done and give her another chance.

Otherwise thank her and say you are clearly not explaining yourself well. Give her two weeks money and say that will be all thank you.

good luck.

Just another thought. I’ve been lucky and in thirty years have only had three cleaners, of which the first one only lasted two weeks, the second retired to Wales and found me a substitute who would ‘understand my ways ‘ to hand over to.

I’m quite surprised by your friend recommending their own cleaner. No one I know does that, unless they are moving away.

She's not doing a good job, leaves early and you are worried about upsetting her, put your big girl pants on and tell her you no longer require her services and find someone who does a proper job.