Page 2 | to expect my cleaner to turn up at the time she's meant to?

HeadFairy · 2008-07-07T10:24:37+00:00

She's supposed to work 10am to 1pm on Monday mornings, I never know if she does as I'm always at work. Today I'm off sick and desperate to go back to bed but I can't until she's gone. She hasn't even arrived yet. It seems trivial but I'm so poorly I just want to sleep!

lucyellensmum · 07/07/2008 19:26

I agree with clumsy mum actually, if i could afford a cleaner i would calculate how much i would want to pay to have my house cleaned to the extent i could afford/want and pay that much. Wouldnt care if the person took 3 hours or 3 minutes so long as it was done properly. Think you are all being a bit precious.

Original poster

HeadFairy · 08/07/2008 08:39

It's an agency lucyellensmum... they only charge an hourly rate. Surely it's not precious to want someone to work for three hours if you pay them for three hours?

OP posts:

Mumsnut · 08/07/2008 08:56

There is always 'stuff' that can be done to fill up any times left over - cleaning the windows, cleaning the fridge, giving kitchen cupboards a springclean - things not part of the weekly cycle (not in my house, anyway). If you pay for three hours, they should be working three hours and using their initiative to do things like this with leftover time.

clumsymum · 08/07/2008 10:43

"using their initiative"

Without meaning to cause offence, these are cleaners we're talking about.
I don't expect a cleaning lady (or chap) to have much by way of initiative. I mean, bless them if they did, they'd find a job much more satisfying than cleaning your home for you.

I love my cleaner, she's a lovely caring person. But I wouldn't say she has much initiative.

Kewcumber · 08/07/2008 10:47

I can just see my bosses face when I went home at 3pm becasue I'd finished my work for the day!

I think you need to be clear whether you are paying for a certian number of hours cleaning or a full house clean.

My cleaner does 5 hrs a week - it doesn;t take her that long to clean the hosue so I expect her to do some ironing when she's finished, how much depends on how long it takes her to clean the house.

I want Nooka's cleaner.

Kewcumber · 08/07/2008 10:50

You don't need any iniative to work out what to do to fill in the time paid for, just having cleaned your own home would be experience enough.

I have no problems with my cleaner leaving a bit early if she;s worked extra hard one day and finished what is a reasonable amount of owrk occasionally. I do have a problme with paying her for 5 hours and only working 4 (whioch she is currently doing) when I am giving up things I want to have in order to pay her.

I am crap at dealing with cleaners...

Mumsnut · 08/07/2008 12:22

Clumsymum, my cleaner puts in a load of washing or does some ironing if the basic stuff is finished before her 5 hrs are up. Or she takes the baby for a walk

It isn't rocket science - I'm sure cleaners clean their own homes too, and know what there is to do in a house.

clumsymum · 08/07/2008 13:07

well yes, but then they need to be careful too of not treading on toes, doing stuff you might not want them to.

While we were on holiday my cleaner did tidy all our drawers, including dh's and my bedside drawers !!

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 13:17

I do think that it is reasonable to expect the cleaner to do what is required of her. At first i would imagine that things might take a little longer, but as she finds her way around your house she may well get a routine if she is efficient. Why on earth Mumsnut should someone be penalised for efficiency, and have to use their initiative to find themselves extra work. If it is agreed what is done at the outset then that is all the cleaner should have to do, this works both ways, if she cannot organise herself to do the work in the allotted time and have to stay longer then she cannot ask for more money. If i were to ask my cleaner to do extras, i would expect to pay extras. But then, i don't have a cleaner, so what would i know .

Kewcumber · 08/07/2008 13:32

I expect my cleanre to work at a reasonable pace with a break or two for 5 hours. Not just to do a list of chores mainly because sometimes I have been very tidy, dishwasher has been stacked and turned on, DS hasn't run through the hall in muddy shoes etc so I expect her to do something else to do her hours. If it is particularly difficult eg if we've had visitors then I expect her to do less.

Original poster

HeadFairy · 08/07/2008 14:14

She's really good at finding extra things to do, she does have lots of initiative. I came home one week and found she'd cleaned out the fridge.

Having said that lucyellensmum, if i've paid for 3 hours I don't want her to finish after 2, even if she is being efficient. I wouldn't mind if she slowed down so she did take three hours, it's the fact I pay for three hours work that's the key here. If she took more than three hours to do the house, if we had a massive house for example, then I wouldn't expect her to work longer, just the three hours I pay her for.

OP posts:

clumsymum · 08/07/2008 14:43

"I wouldn't mind if she slowed down so she did take three hours, it's the fact I pay for three hours work that's the key here."

That is utterly loopy.

Mumsnut · 08/07/2008 15:00

"Why on earth Mumsnut should someone be penalised for efficiency, and have to use their initiative to find themselves extra work. If it is agreed what is done at the outset then that is all the cleaner should have to do, this works both ways, if she cannot organise herself to do the work in the allotted time and have to stay longer then she cannot ask for more money."

I think the opposite, really. Why reward someone permanently for estimating something will take three hours, when it becomes two hours as soon as they get into the swing of it? But if my cleaner estimated two hours for the work and it turned out it routinely took three, I would pay her the extra.

Also, I have not agreed a set list of tasks with my lady: just that she will clean for me for 5 hours a week. So that's what she does (if ironing and laundry can be classified as cleaning, but she's happy).

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 16:08

That is fair enough mumsnut if that is the arrangement you have then i think it is fair enough. Me, i would just be happy for someone to do it for me .

I have to say though that i was DISMAYED by the assumption that cleaners are somewhat lacking in the brain department.

By clumsymum on Tue 08-Jul-08 10:43:37
"using their initiative"

Without meaning to cause offence, these are cleaners we're talking about.
I don't expect a cleaning lady (or chap) to have much by way of initiative. I mean, bless them if they did, they'd find a job much more satisfying than cleaning your home for you.

I love my cleaner, she's a lovely caring person. But I wouldn't say she has much initiative.

THIS has to take the prize for most horribly smug and patronising thread i have ever read on mumsnet. I think that most people are cleaners because it is a job that they can easily fit around their family - family first, job second. They might like the freedom of working for themselves, it might be extra money for a holiday or money because finances dictate that they absolutely need it. What an awful thing to say that they don't have the capacity to use their initiative. I am thinking about taking on some cleaning when DD goes to playschool in september. I don't know if i have much initiative, i just NEED the money - im certainly far from stupid or academically inadequate. . I know you meant well by this post clumsy but its a bit of a clanger if you ask me

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 16:09

actually mumsnut the more i think about it, the more i would want to know exactly what would be cleaned. But hey, it works for you, thats great. I guess i must get on my high horse about it for some reason.

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 16:10

sorry, i meant smug and patronising post, not thread.

GivePeasAChance · 08/07/2008 16:14

It is a shit job.

I probably wouldn't be too motivated to be punctual to go clean up someone else's shit for crap money. I also don't think I would be arsed to have the 'iniative' to find something else to do to fill my time.

Get real!

CrushWithEyeliner · 08/07/2008 16:21

It is not a shit job for someone who needs it desperately and has pride in their work. Cleaners can have integrity in themselves you know. I wholeheartedly disagree with you GPAC. In fact your post makes me v

Desiderata · 08/07/2008 16:22

Clumsymum, I'm a cleaner, and I have to say that your comments regarding lack of initiative are just crap.

I clean because I can work it around my child. I get good money for it, and I'm no-one's cap-doffing servant.

We all have to make different choices when we have children. It works for me.

It's a shame you seem to think we're all thick.

GivePeasAChance · 08/07/2008 16:23

In what way is it not a shit job? Needs must and integrity not in question. But it is still a shit job. Mainly done by women

zippitippitoes · 08/07/2008 16:24

i dont think it is a shit job

it is also better paid than eg shop work and more pleasant

zippitippitoes · 08/07/2008 16:25

possibly not if you work for an agancy tho as the pay is less good than if yopiu do it independently

GivePeasAChance · 08/07/2008 16:29

Holiday pay? Chances of promotion? Private healthcare? Pay rises (not enforced by minimum wage increases)? Sick pay?

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 16:29

i agree zippi - i just could not could NOT do shop work, i would go off my rocker, seriously, and they tell me you need a degree to work in John Lewis these days!!! It must be because you have to be so intellectual and highbrow that you can disappear into your own mind whilst wandering around trying to look interesting in fecking china dinner services. Give me a mop and bucket any day!! Really when you think about it, it is actually quite a good job. The money is reasonable, hours to suit - probably tax free, flexible (and you can tell the silly cow you are cleaning for that it takes you three hours and then feck off after 45 minutes ) sorry, im being naughty now.

lucyellensmum · 08/07/2008 16:31

peas, i suppose if you work for agency you are entitled to some if not all of the things you mention. I wouldn't do it for an egency though. And i would be fussy. I think it is more a question, for most, of something to fit in around the children. It will be for me i think, before i go back to work full time when DD starts school.