WWYD is you discovered your new cleaner (only started today) had used the phone?

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I'd arranged, through an agency, for her to do 2 hours per week. Was enough for the last cleaner we had to do a really good clean on everything except the bathrooms (which I don't mind doing). I had to let the last one go when DH lost his job and now he's back in work, she's fully booked - not surprising, she was very good.

Anyway the new one came for 2 hours on the basis that she'd see how long it took to clean through (except bathrooms) and then we'd confirm ongoing arrangement.

She was just finishing when I got home from work and told me she'd done nearly 2hs 45, so I paid her for 3 hours and we agreed that certain jobs can be done every other week and we'd leave it at 2 hours.

I was pleased, it was a relief to have got a cleaner again and I did think the old one got an amazing amount done in the time. Can't really afford to increase the time - a cleaner is a massive luxury for me, but necessary if DH and I are to maintain domestic bliss (he's by far the more domesticated, but I have more time, although I do work almost FT)

Not long after she left I got a call from someone "returning my call" as he'd had a missed call from my home number. Wasn't me, as I'd only just walked in and turned out the caller was the cleaner's DH.

If she'd mentioned to me that she'd needed to make a quick call, I honestly wouldn't have minded, but in a world where everyone (including her) has a mobile, I really can't see a reason for her to use our land-line, other than for me to pay for the call. I appreciate it would probably only been pennies, even if she had got through, but that's not the point, is it? And it doesn't seem a great start for a job that basically depends on honesty and trust. Or does it matter?

It's such a small thing that it wouldn't cross my mind to be bothered about it.

Indeed. I bet the call was free - by the sound of it she didn't actually speak to her DH anyway, as he rang back. Perhaps she had car trouble and wanted to let him know she had got there safely. Perhaps she had to remind him/tell him about something that couldn't wait. I bet even if she spoke to him the whole thing couldn't have taken more than 2 minutes.

I think I would begrudge a phonecall unless I'd been asked first out of courtesy.

Calls to mobiles from our landline are about a £1 each, by the time you add on VAT. We have a house rule of using mobiles to call other mobiles. We try to limit the landline to local calls only.

I'd give a cup of tea to anyone though.

I'm hoping to be able to get a cleaner soon, and will hope she feels comfortable in my home and will have a cuppa, and use the loo, and make a quick call if needs be.

I think some folk feel the need to act like the evil boss as soon as they have someone working for them.
Power trip an' all that.

I don't often see my cleaner as I'm at work, but when I am there I always make her coffee and we have a bit of a chat. Sometimes quite a lot of a chat. [bublush]

Even though she's been coming to us 12 years, she still brings her own bottle of diet coke with her, as she doesn't like to assume that she'll be given tea/coffee (although she's been told numerous times she's welcome to make hot drinks).

I would be surprised if a new cleaner used the phone.

lol colditz - almost true
it's not that I wouldn't allow it exactly but I wouldn't be impressed! I'd just get a new cleaner who spent her two hours cleaning not drinking tea. Like I said, I wouldn't dream of doing it myself, having been in that situation, so I just apply the same logic.

Why would anyone need a tea break if only in the house for two hours?? Clearly you might need the loo, and may well get thirsty and want some juice or water, but a tea break? If they were in your house for the day then sure - tea breaks and lunch - but a two-hour blitz is a two-hour blitz.

The phone call I wouldn't mind - it's reasonable to call her DH to say going to be late, as she had run over her time. Possibly she only has a pay-as-you-go phone & it does cost. I'd only mention it if the bill shows she's been on to her Mum for 20 minutes!

I was a cleaner, until I had to stop working, and I added in an extra tea break every day, though I did work in Care home and not a private home.
My boss positively encouraged it.

the phone call thing does show a 'what's yours is mine' attitude to property that would worry me though. wouldn't an honest person at least mention that they had had to use the phone? obv if you know your cleaner really well and they've worked there for years etc then they might not bother telling you. but on the first day?? warning bells imo

I don't get the notion that drinking tea = tea break.

I clean the kitchen. Kettle boils. I make tea. I clean the oven. I drink some tea. I clean the sink. Drink some more tea. etc.

Actually I don't like tea but you get my gist...

Maybe they have a system for safety - when she starts at a new persons house, she gives him a missed call and he rings back to check she's ok?

TBH, if I rang DH (no signal/no credit etc), put the ohoine down before he answered, carried on with my cleaning, then had a detailed conversation with you about what I had done etc, I prob wouldn't mention the aborted phone call. (Would def tell you if it connected though).

I really don't think she has been "dishonest" at all. Her only crime, as it stands, is that she touched your phone - literally nothing else happened. If you feel this uneasy about about this, then how can you realistically be happy with someone being in your home without you there?

I would get a new cleaner, this is the beginning of your relationship with this woman and it is already on the rocks. It obviously has annoyed you as it would me. I don't think there is any excuse as she didn't mention it.

On the tea topic, when I clean my own house I do all my jobs and then have a cup of tea as my treat at the end when I sit down. If a cleaner of mine wanted to have a cup of tea or coffee when they finished I would not mind but not when they are meant to be working.

I also really don't like it when previous cleaners talk on the phone while cleaning. I am paying them to do a job not to chat on the phone. I chat on the phone sometimes while I clean and it does mean my mind is not ont he job, I am slower and miss things.

nah, you could have a cup of tea before the two hours work or after in my house and it wouldn't be begrudged

I wouldn't like it. However! at the moment, if I could have a cleaner and she sorted out my crap worked, she could phone Australia!

I once left a decorator working in the house... I did say to him that I hadn't got a problem with him using my phone but would he please wipe the paint off when he'd finished...

It's the thin end of the wedge. Most cleaners:

Use mobile phones and only very briefly
Bring bottles of water with them
Get paid by the quarter hour
Do not expect paid tea or lunch breaks (they are, after all, freelance, so it is effectively included in the rather high hourly rate charged)
Get one with it and get a sense of satisfaction out of leaving things presentable

These are the more professional ones.

Some cleaners:

Don't really like cleaning and fiddle faddle about spinning out the time to maximise their pay for minimal work
Omit to do all the difficult or less palatable bits
Gossip endlessly to you or on their phones to make life less boring
Break your stuff
Help themselves to your things
Leave bottles of bleach and polish and dirty cloths all over the place after they leave
Leave doors and windows unlocked when they leave
Fail to turn up as agreed without a good excuse
Gossip about your private life to other people

These are the more crap ones. If you see signs of this type of thing, ditch them.