Do you allow your cleaning help to BLAB on the phone?

ss321

Mon, Jun 01 2009, 7:49 am

koalamom, I do understand your concern, but I do see why people took issue with your original post. at any rate, I think the question here is how are you paying her. if she is getting paid by the hour, then yes, the talking 24/7 on the phone might be a bit inappropriate, if that means that 8 hours of work are taking her 9.5-10 hrs, and you have to pay her for that. But OTOH, if you are paying her by the day or by the week, so long as her dragging things out a bit by spending time on the phone isnt causing you a tremendous amount of stress (ie - its erev shabbos, you need the kitchen to be done, and you need the clothes to all be put away, but its taking her 2 hrs to fold 30 minutes worth of laundry because of her constant chatting), I dont see any justification for you telling her "im the boss, now quit it." if it really gets in the way of her work, that is another story - as is the case with the china. Maybe just say to her (nicely and respectfully) that you would appreciate it if she stays off the phone while washing dishes because they are very expensive and you dont want any of them to break (and PS - taking it out of her pay?? are you for real? I thought that was only in movies like "the nanny diaries" and stuff! and I have basically full-time help. She has broken tons of stuff. I would NEVER ever consider anything like that!!! OMG even the thought is shocking to me!! I thought things like that were just like "Legends of the Upper East Side WitchMoms"!! When I call the IT department in school because I crash a computer, should I get charged for their services? Wow I am really shocked even at the notion of what you said)

ETA: I wasnt implying you are a "witch" or anything of the sort Smile

. I am just surprised that people really do such things (charge cleaning ladies for a broken glass), I thought it was an urban legend. Glad to see you were kidding.

Last edited by ss321 on Mon, Jun 01 2009, 12:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

koalamum

Mon, Jun 01 2009, 12:16 pm

ss321 wrote:

koalamom, I do understand your concern, but I do see why people took issue with your original post. at any rate, I think the question here is how are you paying her. if she is getting paid by the hour, then yes, the talking 24/7 on the phone might be a bit inappropriate, if that means that 8 hours of work are taking her 9.5-10 hrs, and you have to pay her for that. But OTOH, if you are paying her by the day or by the week, so long as her dragging things out a bit by spending time on the phone isnt causing you a tremendous amount of stress (ie - its erev shabbos, you need the kitchen to be done, and you need the clothes to all be put away, but its taking her 2 hrs to fold 30 minutes worth of laundry because of her constant chatting), I dont see any justification for you telling her "im the boss, now quit it." if it really gets in the way of her work, that is another story - as is the case with the china. Maybe just say to her (nicely and respectfully) that you would appreciate it if she stays off the phone while washing dishes because they are very expensive and you dont want any of them to break (and PS - taking it out of her pay?? are you for real? I thought that was only in movies like "the nanny diaries" and stuff! and I have basically full-time help. She has broken tons of stuff. I would NEVER ever consider anything like that!!! OMG even the thought is shocking to me!! I thought things like that were just like "Legends of the Upper East Side WitchMoms"!! When I call tech support in school because I crash a computer, should I get charged for their services? Wow I am really shocked even at the notion of what you said)

I pay her by the hour.
I was being sarcastic when I said I didn't charge her, as ppl here are making me feel like a witch anyway. I've had tons of stuff broken throughout the years - and stolen - and I would never consider asking for recompensation. (The stealer was never proven). I feel like you guys are on a witch hunt!

I once subbed in an office where a relative of mine was the boss. It was mostly frum women working there. There were also non - Jews as well. I was APPALLED at how much blabbing and yenting the heimish women were doing while they were typing/calculating/accounting etc. It's one thing to check on your kids/mom/husband, while doing work for someone else, but they were on the phone for hours. That I must say was a chilul Hashem. What did the non jews think?

ss321

Mon, Jun 01 2009, 12:36 pm

koalamum wrote:

I wasnt trying to come down hard on you or anything! I hope thats not the impression you got.
1. If you pay her by the hour, then IMO it is within reason for you to ask her politely to focus on her work especially when she is doing things like washing expensive china. I believe there is a difference between any sort of employee being paid by the hour, and someone on salary. doesnt matter if the pay-for-time worker is a cleaning lady you are paying $8/hr or an attorney who you are paying 400 bucks for an hourlong consultation, I think that since you are paying for the TIME it is a different story than if you are paying for an overall service. It is all in how you say it though - "[cleaning lady name], I know you have kids at home, and I know you are a responsible good and loving mom and want to be in constant contact with them, I am totally the same way with my own children. But, Im sorry if this is an inconvenience to you, is there any way, that while washing my dishes which are very expsneive and chip easily [as well as x y and z things], you could really focus on just washing [/scrubbing/whatever], and save the phone call for right after? I myself have chipped a few dishes like that over the years and have learned the hard way. I would really appreciate it! thanks so much and Im sorry for the inconvenience."

I dont really have much experience in office work, but yes, I do agree with you, when I walk into any sort of office (usually doctor's dentist's offices) and the secretary is yapping on the phone in the corner with her girlfriend/boyfriend/bfffff/etc, it really is annoying and unprofessional. however, having lived my entire life in NYC, Ive been to offices where a) the entire staff is made up of Heimish women b) the entire staff is made up of non-jewish educated women c) the entire staff is made up of people like DMV employees d) mixed bag.
with the exception of group "C" who are just rude and for the most part make you want to kill yourself, I dont find much of a difference in terms of the professionalism of groups a b or c, so Im not sure what you are getting at. sorry if the office you "subbed" in (not sure what that even means? you mean worked as a temp? arent "subs" teachers?) was a bad experience.
But my babysitter spends a great deal of my kids' sleeping time on the phone-what do I care, shes doing her job! I think where you have to draw the line is when her personal phone calls are interfering with her work (breaking dishes), and it sounds like youve gotten to that point. key is to do it nicely.

as for your stolen items, all I can say is, either get a safe, or get a new housekeeper. Not all housekeepers are thieves, but I can say with almost complete confidence, that all pepole who have hired help, have at some point in their lives lost things, even expensive things, so you cant rule human error (ie you or DH or one of your kids losing things) out as a possibility. if you think she is stealing, then I think you have a bigger problem than a few cracked dishes and a cell phone though.

BZBEE

Tue, Jun 09 2009, 10:13 pm

I cannot compare my job(secretary) to my cleaning girl. But I do know that my boss doesn't like when we talk on the phone at work. I have a workmate who talks very loudly and everybody knows her whole life story. When anybody asks her to do something, she doesn't even hear.
I personally do not like talking in public so I go outside if it's really urgent.
I too, would not be happy if my cleaning help would talk away... I notice that she definitely does a better job when she gives her full concentration.
I usually put on some music, and that way none of us can really talk on the phone LOL

I go to my cooking, and she has her cleaning.
But I definitely think you can tell her nicely that you'd appreciate if she doesn't talk on the phone while she works, or at least while she does certain tasks.