To sack or not to sack??

[Andrea157]

Hello,

I hired a domestic cleaner in Feb/Mar of this year and so far she has taken at least 6 weeks annual leave to date. I received a text from her yesterday informing me that she was in the S.West of England - when she should have been cleaning my house, I also know for a fact that she used her young daughter on one occassion to get out of the cleaning chores....I'm at a quandary as what to do - do I terminate her employment with me? or do I keep her on? - she's a nice enough lady and does an okay job (all the basic house-hold duties).

The last time she went on holiday - she mentioned that this the last holiday that she'd be taking and now she's on annual leave again. How do I let her down gently?

Would appreciate your thoughts and comment / advice.

Thanks xx

You aren't paying her when she is on holiday are you? I don't understand what you mean about her daughter. Is she actually away on holiday when she takes leave?

I would just clearly state the facts - that you need your house cleaned every week and any more than X weeks holiday in a year or X weeks every 3 months is a problem for you. As she has taken 6 weeks in 5 months you are unable to continue to use her services. She clearly doesn't really want to do the work or need the regular income, so she might not bee too bothered.

Hi - no not paying her when she is away on her holidays (thankfully)! Just to clarify - she used her daughter as an excuse once - so that she didn't have to come and clean my house (always kinda happens when the sun is shining). Yes as far as I am aware she always goes away on holiday, so far this year 3 trips to Spain and another to France and a few holidays to England, the latest one being Yorkshire.

I've e-mailed her today and told her that she needs to give her clients / customers some level of reliability and "on the day" notice or there abouts just wasn't acceptable to me and I ended with saying that I no longer required her services.

Thanks for replying to the post, it was very kind of you.

Hi I saw your post and wondered where you lived I run a cleaning business and maybe able to provide a cleaning service for you if you haven't sorted a new cleaner already!

G'evening Sparkles11 - I live in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Hi Sparkles, where is your cleaning business based? I am looking for a cleaner, but as DH is super-fussy I am thinking of trying a few different ones to begin with (as the last one we had was rubbish).