Cleaner having her children whilst cleaning

[MissMatchy]

Just after some other perspectives. We have a regular cleaner, for about 8 months. She's pretty good tbf although sometimes doesn't fully do the 3 hours we pay her for. No biggie. She came round this week, and whilst she was here our ring doorbell camera notification went off a few times so I logged on to see why. It turns out someone dropped her young child off (presumably after school?) and she let them in, then they were picked up about an hour later.
She didn't check this was ok with us, nor did she mention it had happened. I'm pretty pissed off about it tbh. Surely common respect should be used here? What was the child doing whilst she was cleaning?

The number of people who WFH while managing to perform all sorts of roles on here! It's not brain surgery. Cut her some slack.

Cleaning is a job you can do with no qualifications, safe, fits around any commitments, isn't particularly taxing, you leave it at the door, it provides people with a service they really value, and in most places it pays reasonably well once you've built a client base and honed your skills.

All this "isn't a sought after job" stuff; "have some empathy"; "she must be desperate" - these comments are just looking down on the women who do it and reinforcing the snobbery around it.

A) where are you finding private (not agency) cleaners for £20 please? Most charge a lot more....because they can, because they are good at their jobs and are valued accordingly rather than being peasants pitted by their patronising superiors.

B) the ignorance of mocking the poster and assuming they make far more than that themselves, as a "gotcha" when a full time job paid that hourly rate would equate to a yearly salary of £41.k - 5k over the average salary.

so yes, many many professional jobs that require at least one degree and a huge amount of training/and or responsibility, will be earning far less than £20 p/h, including nurses, teachers and police officers for the first few years of their jobs, emergency paramedics, social workers, the vast majority of people working in the arts or heritage sector like museum curators.....

Maybe actually look at some stats and know what you're talking about if you want to make a point, rather than bullshitting and embarrassing yourself.

I have actually had the same thing this week except my cleaner let me know on the way here and I actually wasn’t bothered at all, he is a teenager so I didn’t think he would make a mess etc. However I am actually really annoyed as she said he was going to ‘help’ her and I think she has left him to clean downstairs which was actually not clean at all - hadn’t even bothered wiping the table in the kitchen which I feel is quite basic! I ended up having to do a load more cleaning myself, not a very good use of time. I have decided not to say anything this time and see if it’s clean next time she comes as I have never had a problem with her work before.

Absolute mickey take. I wouldn’t be happy with that OP. You’re presumably not running a childcare facility?

As a one off I'd let it go. We've all had childcare woes before. But it really isn't appropriate to bring children to work, much less so if you work in private homes.
Anyway, cleaners round me charge upwards of £25 an hour. They can pay for after school club like I do on a lower hourly rate...

It’s the not mentioning it that is the main issue as it took any choice away from you. I wouldn’t be wild about it either. Ok as a one off, but depending on the age of the child they could break or damage things.
We had a cleaner who had also offered to feed our cats when we went on holiday. When we got back the cats were really stressed and it turned out she had been bringing her 5yo son and his friend with her and they were mishandling the cats.
I can understand why she did it as she was just popping in, but we never used her for that again.
op, what sort of age was her child?

It’s their place of work but it’s your home and, at the end of the day, you are paying them.

I am quite private and security conscious so have always made it clear upfront that no one else can come to the house, whether that is my cleaner substituting her sister to do the work one week, having a boyfriend or partner (who is giving her a lift) waiting in my house while she finishes or having children come and play, effectively unsupervised, while she works. I want to avoid all those scenarios. So I make it clear upfront and, while I am always welcoming, pleasant and generous to my cleaner (I often give her a lift if it’s raining), she knows exactly where the boundaries lie.

This works well by the way, because I have kept cleaners for years and they have generally only ever moved on due to their own circumstances.

You have no idea do you ?

Sorry, is that aimed at me?

She probably was totally sick and couldn't risk asking you. If she has asked and you said no, she wouldn't have been able to clean (and no doubt earn money she needs).

If you were happy to say no and then pay her for parental leave, and she was aware of that, then that would be ok.

If the cleaner wants parental leave, then she needs to write it into her contracts. It isn't for her clients to offer. That's the deal with self employment - your policies are your own to write and your time off is yours to budget for.

I wouldn't like this - it's not professional to take children to the workplace, particularly when it's someone else's home. Being a cleaner is a business and when money changes hands, it should be treated as any other workplace. You don't know how well behaved (or not) this child is, whether they are the 'jump on the sofa' type (like my friend's dd) or the 'sit quietly with a book' type of child. I get that people have childcare glitches but I would think the best course of action is to run it past the OP and see if she minds or would prefer the cleaner to stop work and return on another day.

Not all cleaners are poor - just because it's a working class job and doesn't require tons of qualifications, it doesn't automatically follow that it isn't lucrative. There are a lot of people out there who are too busy/don't want to clean their own houses and will pay a decent amount for someone else to do it. There are plenty of well off working class people - they just aren't doing 'professional' jobs.

The Op isnt the cleaners boss
She doesnt have to pay her for parental leave as the cleaner works for herself .

No. I would buy nice things in for visitors, and would like to do the same for them.

The cleaner isnt a visitor shes providing a service
The child isnt a visitor either as they shouldnt be there .

So the cleaner is a visitor?

I agree with this.

Most cleaners I know are either retired, supported by higher earning DHs or on benefits and doing it for cash/pin money.

The comparison with the US drama ‘Maid’ doesn’t sit well because had that been in the UK, the protagonist and her DD would have been housed by the council and given benefits.

My cleaner used to bring her daughter with her sometimes. I was perfectly happy with it.

Cleaners should also be mindful that their insurance likely does not cover damage or injury to or caused by their children....

I’d rather have been told, children are naturally curious (I was myself as a child) and may have gone looking into things, leaving something somewhere it shouldn’t be etc, and I’d rather be aware of this.

Yeah, whatever

Ps I assume the OP is earning ok because she can afford a cleaner?

I used to have one years ago, my circumstances are different now & I can't afford one so I don't have one anymore.

Don't forget they also have to pay tax, NI, insurance, advertising etc out of that hourly rate too.

The children are visiting the house while their mum works. I don't mind them being here, and would simply like them to have a nice time... and in my eyes, playing in the garden, with my dogs, having a few different toys to play with, and perhaps different drinks/snacks is more interesting than sitting on a sofa waiting for their mum to finish work.

Yes of course they do. All irrelevant to whether or not it is appropriate to bring kids into clients homes.