Do you use a cleaner? What do they do?

[Cyclone]

As a part time warden helping old and disabled folk to go about their basic every day tasks , I often get asked if I would clean for the daughter or other relation of my clients.

 

This always gets me rather angry as the said relation is in most cases just an every day worker just like my self.

 

These people may have jobs in what they consider to be of higher value than a mere manual worker but usually they are on a forty hour five day week.

 

Now my point is why do they think that their life style is so important that they would need a cleaner, maid or domestic servant?.

 

Why can they not clean up for themselves , why do they think that some one else should swill out their bog or pick and put their soiled nickers in the washer this on top of dusting ,window cleaning, hoovering and generally keeping their nice little abode spick and span while they have coffee with the girls, golf with the lads or ride a stationary bike at the gym. (usually reached by BMW or Volvo when they could just walk any way.

 

Most people of my generation have brought kids up while working part time this on top of performing all their own domestic tasks ,digging the garden, and decorating the home. So what has happened that many in todays yummy mummy, daddy ,society think that they are not capable or indeed above cleaning up their own mess and instead decide to get a woman( usually anyway) in.

 

You're thinking about it all wrong.

It's nothing to do with thinking that they're too important to clean or that they're more important.

They simply have enough money to pay someone to do the thing, so they ask if you want to be the one to earn that money. It's a compliment, and you're answer should simply be an hourly rate. If you don't fancy the work, ask for £20/hr and they'll find someone else. Or maybe they'll say yes and you can considerably increase your earnings (and next time ask for £25/hr).

 

I have a cleaner for my home. It makes more sense for me to spend 1hr at work and pay for three hours of her time and frankly I'd rather do that as work is more interesting than cleaning the house.

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2016 at 09:19 ----------

 

Well some of the aristocracy are up themselves as can be seen by watching various documentaries on T.V.

But my observation of many folk who have a woman in to clean the bog is that they are just blooody lazy sods.

I suppose you're entitled to judge. But if someone is too lazy and has enough money, why is it a bad thing that they pay someone else to do it?

 

As to women thinking that they could be a secretory or similar then that is a very sexist statement to make especially as in this Country one has made prime minister while the other is a Queen.

It was a comment about a previous generation.

And you do realise that Queen is a job with only one very specific qualification?

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2016 at 11:12 ----------

 

I don't know if people use cleaners anymore than they did years ago....Personally I much prefer to clean up my own mess rather than have someone else do it - though knowing me I'd probably tidy up before the cleaner arrived, lest she thought I was dirty sod!

 

To the OP, I wouldn't get too angry with your clients in them asking to clean for their relatives - in some ways it's a compliment: they obviously think that you're trustworthy, reliable, not too proud to get stuck in and do a good job.

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2016 at 07:36 ----------

 

 

I think the OP possibly feels put upon....In some respects, if I was in his/her position I'd probably feel the same.

I know it sounds a bit weird but I wouldn't mind cleaning up after the elderly or disabled, as they can't manage it by themselves - but, if I'm honest, I would feel resentful if the person I was cleaning for was, as the OP said, going to the gym or drinking lattes in Starbucks or wherever.

 

You DO have to tidy up before the cleaner comes. You hire them to clean, not to tidy! You can't clean a room if it isn't tidy to start with.

 

Why would you feel resentful (as a cleaner) if your client was going to the gym or watching TV? You have a job right, do you feel resentful that your customers aren't doing it themselves?

I bought a bacon sandwich this morning, do you think the person cooking it felt resentful that I didn't cook it myself?

[Mister M]

You're thinking about it all wrong.

It's nothing to do with thinking that they're too important to clean or that they're more important.

They simply have enough money to pay someone to do the thing, so they ask if you want to be the one to earn that money. It's a compliment, and you're answer should simply be an hourly rate. If you don't fancy the work, ask for £20/hr and they'll find someone else. Or maybe they'll say yes and you can considerably increase your earnings (and next time ask for £25/hr).

 

I have a cleaner for my home. It makes more sense for me to spend 1hr at work and pay for three hours of her time and frankly I'd rather do that as work is more interesting than cleaning the house.

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2016 at 09:19 ----------

 

I suppose you're entitled to judge. But if someone is too lazy and has enough money, why is it a bad thing that they pay someone else to do it?

It was a comment about a previous generation.

And you do realise that Queen is a job with only one very specific qualification?

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2016 at 11:12 ----------

 

 

You DO have to tidy up before the cleaner comes. You hire them to clean, not to tidy! You can't clean a room if it isn't tidy to start with.

 

Why would you feel resentful (as a cleaner) if your client was going to the gym or watching TV? You have a job right, do you feel resentful that your customers aren't doing it themselves?

I bought a bacon sandwich this morning, do you think the person cooking it felt resentful that I didn't cook it myself?

 

Because that's how I would feel. I can't rationalise it - the only thing I can relate it to is when I worked as a care assistant, I looked after and did menial jobs for the elderly mentally infirm. It was hard work, low pay, and low status; however I understood that they were in no position to look after themselves. And in any case many of them, the women anyway, were part of that generation that spent a lifetime of looking after their own children and families, and got paid nothing. So somehow it felt a privilege to give something back.

That experience is very different to that of the scenario that the OP painted of yummy mummies sipping lattes with their mates or going to the gym. I've never been in that situation of being asked to clean for them....Call it the 'politics of envy', I don't know it probably is, but in that situation I can imagine myself making comparisons between my own life and that of others.

 

On a slightly separate point there is an interesting article in todays paper on the introduction of the new higher living wage. Apparently economists are warning that middle-class households that rely on cash-in-hand cleaners, gardeners and car washers are among the employers deemed most likely to try to avoid paying the increased minimum wage:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/01/middle-class-cash-in-hand-employers-unlikely-to-pay-minimum-wage

 

I'm not saying that anyone here would do that....Just the timing of this discussion and the introduction of the higher rate seemed appropriate to mention it.

[Cyclone]

I don't pay my gardener by the hour, he quotes me for the work and I agree a price for the service.

 

I'm afraid that I'm not yummy, female or a mummy, but if I want to go to the gym (or more likely for a run) whilst the gardener or cleaner is working, then who is suffering there? They get paid for the work they are doing, and I have sacrificed some money in order to have the time to go for a run. If they didn't like it, they could always go and do a different job.

[tzijlstra]

Because that's how I would feel. I can't rationalise it - the only thing I can relate it to is when I worked as a care assistant, I looked after and did menial jobs for the elderly mentally infirm. It was hard work, low pay, and low status; however I understood that they were in no position to look after themselves. And in any case many of them, the women anyway, were part of that generation that spent a lifetime of looking after their own children and families, and got paid nothing. So somehow it felt a privilege to give something back.

That experience is very different to that of the scenario that the OP painted of yummy mummies sipping lattes with their mates or going to the gym. I've never been in that situation of being asked to clean for them....Call it the 'politics of envy', I don't know it probably is, but in that situation I can imagine myself making comparisons between my own life and that of others.

 

On a slightly separate point there is an interesting article in todays paper on the introduction of the new higher living wage. Apparently economists are warning that middle-class households that rely on cash-in-hand cleaners, gardeners and car washers are among the employers deemed most likely to try to avoid paying the increased minimum wage:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/01/middle-class-cash-in-hand-employers-unlikely-to-pay-minimum-wage

 

I'm not saying that anyone here would do that....Just the timing of this discussion and the introduction of the higher rate seemed appropriate to mention it.

 

I'm sorry to say this, although you probably already knew this, but you sound like a soppy old socialist

[sutty27]

If someone wants to employ a cleaner and someone wants the job - fine. Two people happy.

 

Sounds right to me, and this is how the economy works, you want something doing and you don't want to do it yourself, you find someone else to do it and pay them a fee.

[mickey finn]

Slightly different but we have a lad who cleans and tidies at work and nobody looks down on him ever, without him the business would eventually come to a standstill unless other workers chipped in and did his job at a substantial loss of profit.

[Olive]

Slightly different but we have a lad who cleans and tidies at work and nobody looks down on him ever, without him the business would eventually come to a standstill unless other workers chipped in and did his job at a substantial loss of profit.

 

It's not that different really - it all adds up to logical use of resource.

 

The OP has decided that it's a better use of resource to have the newspaper delivered by a paper girl. It's all the same, she just doesn't seem to realise it!

[sgtkate]

It's not that different really - it all adds up to logical use of resource.

 

The OP has decided that it's a better use of resource to have the newspaper delivered by a paper girl. It's all the same, she just doesn't seem to realise it!

 

Everything I buy is technically me being lazy. I *could* make my own TV shows, or my own chairs, or even my own PS4, but I have neither the time or skills to do it. Why is cleaning seen as any different to other jobs? Are people still being snobby about it?

 

I don't have a cleaner btw as I don't need one at the moment but I'd have no issues getting one if after my baby is born I struggle to keep up with housework.

[samssong]

Well it looks as though their are some very smug posters on this thread who seem to believe that they are some how not to be involved with the more mundane tasks of life and indeed live on a different planet than the lower orders.

 

Some of the folk who I visit have family's who see them only once in a blue moon due to their busy lives ,these busy lives inc gym visits , golfing, lattes with the lasses, drinkies with the lads ,so on and so on . meanwhile old mum ,dad ,grandma, grandad are being attended by the warden on a daily basis , the warden listens to the tales of days gone by when the said gym attending wine drinking loves were still kids.

 

Then once in the blue moon Debs or Daniel turn up and like a whirlwind rush around moms flat full of what they are going to do once they have the latest trip to Cannes or the Lakes out of the way .

 

On leaving one or two will say "Ask the warden to !!!!!!!!!" etc or as I stated in my original post " do you think they would do a little cleaning for me"

 

Sorry luvs but we have enough on looking after lonely old Gran and Grandad while you are having drinkies at the wine bar.

[Quik]

Well it looks as though their are some very smug posters on this thread who seem to believe that they are some how not to be involved with the more mundane tasks of life and indeed live on a different planet than the lower orders.

 

Some of the folk who I visit have family's who see them only once in a blue moon due to their busy lives ,these busy lives inc gym visits , golfing, lattes with the lasses, drinkies with the lads ,so on and so on . meanwhile old mum ,dad ,grandma, grandad are being attended by the warden on a daily basis , the warden listens to the tales of days gone by when the said gym attending wine drinking loves were still kids.

 

Then once in the blue moon Debs or Daniel turn up and like a whirlwind rush around moms flat full of what they are going to do once they have the latest trip to Cannes or the Lakes out of the way .

 

On leaving one or two will say "Ask the warden to !!!!!!!!!" etc or as I stated in my original post " do you think they would do a little cleaning for me"

 

Sorry luvs but we have enough on looking after lonely old Gran and Grandad while you are having drinkies at the wine bar.

 

If you don't like your job get another one instead of bitching about your employers on here.