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Should I pay our cleaner while we are on holidays?
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Anonymous
| For the last 6 months, we have had a cleaner for 4 hours every 2 weeks. It is a casual arrangement where we pay her cash each time. We never discussed issues like what happens when we are on holidays. We will be on holidays for almost 4 weeks and I need to address what to do while we are away. Since I am new to this country, I am not aware of whether it is customary to continue paying so it would be helpful to know whether other people with similar arrangements would do so. TIA. |
Anonymous
|
I always wonder about this too. I will say that my impression is that the general rule is that for a very part time person like this you don't "need" to pay them for hours not worked.
That said, I am sensitive to the fact that they probably budget based on working a full schedule, and can't really take on extra work for just a visit here or there, so I try to have them make up the time somehow (maybe come 2 weeks in a row), so I am still paying them. Sometimes I'll just pay them anyway. |
Anonymous
| We do. I figure I get a week off with pay from work, so they should, too. |
Anonymous
LOL - i get more than a week off, but you get the idea. |
Anonymous
|
Ummm, no!
That is absurd to pay someone who provides a "casual" service for you. She gets paid for services rendered. If there was a contract of some sort, then yes. Otherwise, no way. For those of you who think she should pay the cleaner, I have a question. Would you pay your stylist even though you skipped your monthly hair color? Would you pay your dry cleaner even though he didn't clean your clothes this week? They BOTH count on your business. so? do you |
Anonymous
| We do not and would never consider doing so. I agree with PP - we pay for services rendered and give them plenty of notice so they can take on another job in place of ours. |
Anonymous
| Yes, I would pay her. She is available for work. This is the cost of doing business. |
Anonymous
| No, but we use a service, not an individual. However, I do try to makeup with an extra cleaning before vacation or after, on a different day so they don't lose the entire time we are away. |
Anonymous
| Recommend paying double- that would be the full articulation of upper-income guilt... |
Anonymous
| No, because I can't afford it, and she knows that. |
Anonymous
| welfare state much? |
Anonymous
| yeah- my wife is a freelance consultant in a technical field. i'm going to ask her to try this take next time with a client to see if they are as benevolent as the PPs here. Some weeks you have work, some weeks you don't...that's what being a contractor in any field professional or otherwise is about... |
Anonymous
I think the difference that you and other PPs miss is that my cleaner has a set number of slots and I want (and expect) to be one of those slots every week I am home. If I was hiring a new cleaner every time I came back from vacation you can be sure I wouldn't pay them while I was gone, but if I am asking her to keep my spot open for me while I am gone it seems a gray area at least. She has a lot less flexibility in how much work she can take on than your wife, a dry cleaner, or even a hairstylist. (It's not even like she can work at night if she's extra busy.) |
Anonymous
| Maybe there are other deeper cleaning jobs she can do while you are gone that she doesn't normally have time for but now will . . . |
Anonymous
| Some of you are just the same old cheap DCUMers and others are just the lazy DCUMers. |