Please do not chortle at the middle class nature of this thread, as I am a bit upset, but I would genuinely like some MN views, so don't be too rough with me.
I have a full time job and a long commute. My cleaner is lovely, but a bit ineffectual, so I have to do a fair bit of top up housework and spring cleaning type stuff myself each week (not easy because I have a disability). I pay her £10 an hour for six hours a week to clean a bedroom, a bathroom, hall stairs and landing, a living room, a downstairs loo and quickly hoover a study and dining room, plus included within that she does about 2 hours worth of ironing. We are quite tidy as a household.
She has been with me for three years and during that time her productivity has declined (see previous posts). I have spoken to her twice about it. Until now I have also been letting her weekly standing order run on if she is away, as a kind of bonus. However three weeks ago she announced she was off for a long haul holiday for a fortnight, and mentioned to someone else in the house that she would be back in three weeks (not two as she told me). So for the past little while I have been doing all the housework and ironing while she has been away. During this time we also did our accounts and realised this was costing us £3k+ a year and we couldn't not really afford it in the present climate, especially if it wasn't always being done very well.
I stopped the standing order, as I felt she was not my employee and she was charging a fairly ample freelance rate, and I rang her upon her return to explain what was going on and that I had to let her go for financial reasons. We had a bit of a roundabout conversation but left it that I would give her two weeks' notice and she would come today.
She came and was very unhappy and then flounced, not coming back, because she reckoned she was entitled to two weeks' paid holiday a year (I have a feeling she's already had more than that, actually, but I never kept records because to me it was a bonus situation) and we had let her down.
I explained my point of view, namely that she was charging full whack as a freelancer and then asking for holiday pay on top of that, which in some ways was a bit steep. Neither side saw the other's point of view.
She is now really upset and so am I. I have been made to feel bad despite the fact that I feel I have been pretty tolerant and generous over the years, and ever so slightly taken advantage of at times (for example sometimes she gets her daughter to come in to clean for her, and even less is done then). She feels she has been loyal and had it thrown back in her face.
Views please (but be a bit gentle).