I have to let my house cleaner go.. how to do this?

[Anonymous]

But what do you say?

[Anonymous]

Change the locks and tell her you are having some financial difficulties at this time.

Then let her go.....

[Anonymous]

I would say that you'll be home more and will be doing the cleaning yourself from now on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But what do you say?

I say, don't revive a 6 year old thread! This one's from 2011. Doing a search on firing your house cleaner?

[Anonymous]

Tell her you are having financial issues or that you will clean yourself.

[Anonymous]

This is what I did. My text said:

Nancy, I am sorry to let you know that I no longer need cleaning service after today. I will send you a check for two weeks of work. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you trust her? Does she have a key? I am fine with confrontation, but when someone knows where I live, etc., I think it's better to claim I no longer have the money.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what I did. My text said:

Nancy, I am sorry to let you know that I no longer need cleaning service after today. I will send you a check for two weeks of work. Thank you.

If she's not an English speaker, she might be confused. Are you wanting her to work 2 more weeks? You no longer need service after today. What about the day after tomorrow?

[Anonymous]

Use the face saving lie. Change locks. Install security or fake security (like a camera that appears to be working or a ADT stickers).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what I did. My text said:

Nancy, I am sorry to let you know that I no longer need cleaning service after today. I will send you a check for two weeks of work. Thank you.

If she's not an English speaker, she might be confused. Are you wanting her to work 2 more weeks? You no longer need service after today. What about the day after tomorrow?

She is not a native English speaker and she understood just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also disagree. Laying someone off is Lways preferable to firing them. There is some liability for firing someone. She probably wouldn't sue you, but I wouldn't risk it. And do change the locks.

She's not an employee. There is no liability. Quit throwing around words and phrases when you have no idea what you're talking about.

You people are such wimps. OP, just tell her and don't sugar coat it. You're not doing her any favors. Just tell her that you need someone who can more reliably meet your schedule and will work harder on the house.

That's it. End of story.

[Anonymous]

OMG. It is so hard to fire a housekeeper.

I had a housekeeper that started to do a horrible job. I moved and just didn’t tell her the new address. I have fired many people, even nannies. A housekeeper? Forget it. There’s no way to do it well. Fake a financial issue. Fake an illness. I won’t judge you.

[Anonymous]

Text her to tell her you're going to clean your own house going forward. Change the locks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a nanny I'm in the situation of being let go when families no longer need your services or lose a job or whatever. Personally, I would much rather a family be honest with me about their reasons (even if it's "not a good fit") than to lie to me because they couldn't handle "confrontation." If you word it well it really shouldn't be confrontational. You could site some specific examples of her unreliability and say you need someone you can count on to be there at X time on X day and do X tasks. Trust me, in the long run you are doing both of you a favor. Nothing is worse than being lied to or given bogus reasons; it really just makes YOU look flighty and irrational.

Nah, don't do that it just invites her to prolong the situation by saying she will change, she will come on those days, do a good job, etc.
Better to say it's about money or just say you want to clean your own house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am really not a confrontational person and I am dreading this. I have to let my house cleaner go. She has been doing an increasingly terrible job and it is just not worth the money; I have to find someone else. She is also completely unreliable - doesn't come when she says she will and shows up randomly expecting to clean at other times and I have to turn her away. Last week was the last straw- DH accidentally left our back door open and I came home to find her (unscheduled) in the house cleaning. I was pretty appalled and she said "oh, I thought you left it open for me!" - there is no way on God's green earth she thought that, and I feel like she just shows up whenever she wants money, does a half ass job and expects me to pay her for it. I cannot even fathom the idea of showing up at someone's house, entering without permission and just starting to clean.. I really can't. After last week's incident, I can't have her back. How would you handle this?

You could do what some people I know did, and move without telling her.