Cleaning lady coming when I’m not home

Lizajen

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 8:47 am

I used to leave my door unlocked for my cleaning lady to let herself in, while I’m at work.. Due to this world getting crazier, I’m uncomfortable leaving it unlocked anymore. How does your cleaning lady enter your house, when you’re at work? Any ideas?

ssspectacular

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 8:53 am

Off topic, but is anyone else uncomfortable with cleaning lady around? I need her occasionally, but really feel awkward having her in the house. I don't know why, but it's a real problem. Anyone relate?

zaq

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 9:13 am

ssspectacular wrote:

Totally. Not because she’s a cleaning lady—she could as well be an electrician or a painter . I’m just not comfy with strangers (meaning anyone other than family and friends) in the house. It’s a huge invasion of privacy no matter how discreet and self-effacing the worker may be.

Amarante

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 10:15 am

Do you trust your cleaning lady with your key? That is the easiest solution.

You could buy one of those hide a key "rocks" and leave the key there on the days when she needs to let herself in. It would be unlikely that anyone else would find the key because it would be there for a short period of time. Have her just leave the key when she departs.

yo'ma

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 10:29 am

I live in a building and I have two doors to get in my apartment. She has the building key and the key of the door we don’t use, so if I knows she’s coming and I’m not home, I make sure the door is unlocked. It’s really convenient.

ra_mom

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 11:21 am

Lizajen wrote:

I schedule for her come before I leave the house, so I can let her in.
At one point I installed a combination lock and had my lady at the time use that to get in if I wasn't home.

happyone

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 11:24 am

Lizajen wrote:

she has our combination

clowny

Fri, Jan 03 2020, 12:02 pm

I would never give my combination lock number to my cleaning lady. My cleaning lady arrives early morning so I’m always home when she arrives. In the event she arrives when I’m not home I would probably leave my door unlocked for just a few minutes. But if she will arrive hours after I leave the house which will make me uncomfortable leaving the door unlocked for that long, I would ask a neighbor to unlock the door a few minutes before she’s scheduled to arrive.

rydys

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 10:09 pm

Am I the only one who is not comfortable with leaving a cleaning lady alone in my house?

Who knows what she will go through or take, or more importantly how she will mess up kashrut in the kitchen? What if she heats up her coffee in the wrong microwave? What about bass hasamuy min haayin?

amotherof3

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 10:20 pm

Do you have a garage door? If yes, order the MyQ remote opener so that you can open the door remotely from your phone. I use MyQ to open and then Wyze cameras to keep an eye on her. Both can be ordered through Amazon.

mig100

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 10:31 pm

rydys wrote:

I'm also. Ive done it on occasion anyways

mig100

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 10:31 pm

ssspectacular wrote:

I can relate

agreer

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 11:13 pm

rydys wrote:

Your concerns are valid, but there are lots of ways to get around.

1) Only have one microwave available (I.e. unplug the other one or put masking tape on it, or if you are very worried, put it away. It's not usually that heavy).
2) Don't leave unopened meat around. Pre-packaged meat is generally sealed with the store's tape in such a way that you'll know it's been tampered with.
3) If she's taking food for her lunch, prepare it ahead of time or don't have certain things available. For example, I only have milchig/pareve food available for her, which is for the milchigs toaster oven. She doesn't have access to fleishig food.
4) Get a camera and TELL HER that you'll be watching her while she's in the kitchen, and if you see that she's not doing it right, you'll call her to let her know. Definitely do that the first few times.

Amarante

Sat, Jan 04 2020, 11:44 pm

Any woman who works needs to trust her cleaning lady.

That's why, at least for me, I bend over backwards to treat my cleaning lady well and provide her as good a work environment as possible. The thought of NOT having a cleaning lady who is trustworthy is frightening

Besides trusting her not to steal or otherwise do inappropriate things when unsupervised, I would also have to be home and teach her where things are and how I like things to be done.

It is one of the reasons why I am always amazed when people post that they fired their cleaning lady because she wanted $1 raise or for some other relatively insignificant reason.