Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be a bit annoyed that my cleaner made herself a cuppa?

544 replies

kwaker5 · 19/08/2009 20:01

Have had a cleaner for about 8 weeks. On first visit I offered her a cuppa as I was having one but she declined and said she always brought her own drinks with her [pointed to cool bag].

I usually let her in and clear off with the DCs while she's there but last week I came back a bit earlier than normal and noticed she'd made herself a brew.

I'm not really pissed off but it's niggling at me. Isn't there and unwritten rule that they shouldn't go in your cupboards/drawers?

OP posts:
foreverchanges · 19/08/2009 21:24

PMSL

Knickers0nMaHead · 19/08/2009 21:25

I bet she is too AF! What a spiteful person you are op. People are allowed tea breaks ya know!

Lizzylou · 19/08/2009 21:27

She cleans your filth up but can't have a drink?

Nice one

duchesse · 19/08/2009 21:27

Good grief I hope you are joking. Of course she should be allowed to make herself a cup of tea. If you won't allow that you are a weirdo, frankly, and should do your own cleaning.

diedandgonetodevon · 19/08/2009 21:31

Christ, if you are going to employ a cleaner for god's sake learn how to treat them with some respect.

I'd worry if our cleaner didn't help herself to a drink.

I hope AnyFucker's right about the toothbrush . It'd serve you right.

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 19/08/2009 22:23

You sound horrible. Maybe she forgot her drink. Maybe she fancied a hot drink. What is bothering you? That she sees in your cupboards? or that she used a teabag and some milk?

You total weirdo. Since when did people begrudge someone, anyone, a cup of tea?

LackaDAISYcal · 19/08/2009 22:33

Isn't there also a rule that employers are legally obliged to provide their employees with suitable refreshment facilities?

Depending on how long she is there she may also be legally entitled to a tea break.

VVVU

piscesmoon · 19/08/2009 22:35

I would have thought that on her first day you would have shown her where things were and told her to help herself, at any time.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 19/08/2009 22:35
Hmm
FuriousGeorge · 19/08/2009 22:35

And I thought the guy I used to garden for was bad.He saw his cleaner make me a cup of tea in a china cup and told her that 'those cups aren't for use by people outside-get her a mug instead'

Whenever he wasn't around,she'd purposely use the best china.The arse has to do his own garden now.

People who are mean to their staff should be aware that we all talk to each other and warn each other of who not to work for.There is someone near me who has been turned down by two cleaners,a gardener and a nanny because of her bad attitude.

AtheneNoctua · 19/08/2009 22:38

OMG, do ya ever wish you hadn't asked???

KeepPassingTheOpenWindows · 19/08/2009 22:42

!!! My ex was a plumber. He worked in different houses every week. The hospitality of the "host" made the world of difference. He would comment often on who had made him a nice cuppa, and who was a tightwad, and who only offered lukewarm camp coffee.

I learnt from him that a happy worker is an efficient worker - always buy proper teabags and chocolate biscuits for your plumber/kitchen fitter/builder. And leave it all out soe they can help themselves if you are not on hand to do it yourself.

Honestly, even cleaners are REAL people who should be treated with the utmost respect!

Stayingsunnygirl · 19/08/2009 22:46

Yes, you are being very unreasonable to be cross or shocked that your cleaner made herself a drink. I assume that she might have occasion to put away a mug or teaspoon, or perhaps even the teabags if they'd been left out, and even if she hasn't, looking for a teabag in the kitchen is hardly an invasion of privacy.

And then to come back and ask if anyone working in your house should be allowed to make a cuppa - well that's just a silly response, if you don't mind my saying!! I would not bat an eyelid if someone working regularly in the house, like a cleaner or nanny, made themselves a drink or two. If someone is working in the garden, or if you have workmen in doing a job, then either you tell them they can help themselves, and leave the mugs/milk/tea/coffee/kettle available so they don't have to search for them, or you make them a brew yourself - at least, that's what I'd do.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that it's reasonable for the meter reader to wander in and make himself a cuppa.

kittywise · 19/08/2009 22:53

YANBU, how ridiculous. She's there to clean you house for a couple of hours not help herself to your stuff.
yes I would be pissed off if i were you

Quattrocento · 19/08/2009 22:59

YABU

Extraordinary stuff. Our cleaner lets herself in, works solidly, has a drinks whenever she feels like it ...

But why would you want a relationship with your cleaner that wasn't free and easy? It sounds awkward and unpleasant.

hatesponge · 19/08/2009 23:09

FFS, its a tea bag, one boil of the kettle and a splash of milk!

Hardly helping herself to the best smoked salmon from the fridge is she?!

Providing your cleaner with a cup of tea while she cleans: 20p

Keeping her happy by doing so, thereby preventing her wanting to use your toothbrush to clean the toilet bowl: priceless

Rosesinautumn · 19/08/2009 23:22

YANBU! Drag her out to the garden by her ear and show her the garden tap and make sure her mouth doesn't go near the spigot when she's drinking - Shish! you start letting the help help themselves to a hot beverage and it's a slippery slope to them looking you in the eye and speaking without being spoken to first.

pickyvic · 19/08/2009 23:22

this has to be a wind up??? i hope so anyway. if i were your cleaner id tell you where to shove that tea bag, and it wouldnt be pretty. i think you sound a terrible employer. if she had had a drink of water she may have still needed to go into a cupboard to find a glass! or would you have preferred her to simply go outside and turn on the hose pipe....wouldnt surprise me. i hope your cleaner uses MN!

BitOfFun · 19/08/2009 23:24

Did she make herself a bacon buttie too? If not YABU.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 20/08/2009 07:37

YABU, when I was in college and cleaning as a way to make a little pocket money, I used to help myself to numerous cups of tea and then some lunch, sometimes I used to take back some of the food that was in the fridge or a nice packet of cakes etc.
My employer would also sometimes pay my bus fare home if I was very short that week...

...But my employer was my Aunt so I think thats allowed!!!

kittywise · 20/08/2009 08:08

If a cleaner is cleaning a house for say 2-3 hours she does not need to have a cup of tea. If she is there all day long then maybe.

This is barmy.

ssd · 20/08/2009 08:12

if she's been waiting in the wind and rain for a bus before she comes, after dropping the kids at school, maybe a cuppa is just what she needs?

hocuspontas · 20/08/2009 08:13

So if she cleans 4 houses a day she is not 'entitled' to a cuppa at all because she has 'only' worked 2 or 3 hours at each?

WinkyWinkola · 20/08/2009 08:15

YABU.

secretgardin · 20/08/2009 08:18

hope you bleached the cup, so you don't catch any of her deadly lower class coodies

Swipe left for the next trending thread