Which housekeeper to hire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would talk to her and tell her all the positives of what you appreciate about her but then get to -- how you're relying on her & when she no shows, the kids can't get ready for their sports & you don't even know until it's late. Tell her that I'm sorry but it's not going work if she does this once more.
I don't understand the kitchen thing but to each his own. Do you just leave everything from the night before?

Thank you. This is good advice. We run out the door at 7am for three drop offs so she cleans up after breakfast and does meal prep for dinner

Got it. I'm usually a softee but No Show, No Call, Unexpectedly Late would unhinge me & force me to set a firm deadline without guilt. It's worse to not know if you have help that day than to know you don't for certain and need to find some.

Maybe she will get back on track but if she doesn't at least you'll know that you're in the market again.
Sometimes I've been too understanding & when I've reminded people of the impact of them not fulfilling their responsibilities, they've shaped up. Especially when they realized their job was in danger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would talk to her and tell her all the positives of what you appreciate about her but then get to -- how you're relying on her & when she no shows, the kids can't get ready for their sports & you don't even know until it's late. Tell her that I'm sorry but it's not going work if she does this once more.
I don't understand the kitchen thing but to each his own. Do you just leave everything from the night before?

Thank you. This is good advice. We run out the door at 7am for three drop offs so she cleans up after breakfast and does meal prep for dinner

Got it. I'm usually a softee but No Show, No Call, Unexpectedly Late would unhinge me & force me to set a firm deadline without guilt. It's worse to not know if you have help that day than to know you don't for certain and need to find some.

Maybe she will get back on track but if she doesn't at least you'll know that you're in the market again.
Sometimes I've been too understanding & when I've reminded people of the impact of them not fulfilling their responsibilities, they've shaped up. Especially when they realized their job was in danger.

OP thanks yes the not knowing is the worst. We have such a tight schedule and the challenge is that I never actually see her to have a conversation about it or to give her any feedback at all. But it’s only been a few months and with less hours more stuff is falling through the cracks so I’ll call her this evening and let her know we need a minimum number of hours. Then if she can’t stick to that I’ll figure out a replacement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So in December we hired the most experienced housekeeper, even though she was only available part time when we wanted full time. We agreed to a set school that 22 hours a week.

She does a great job, when she shows up. But she often comes a few hours late or not at all. She never lets us know ahead of time that she has a schedule change which is annoying as it’s hard to plan around. We pay her via a payroll service based on a time sheet but still it’s frustrating when I come home some days and the kids sports gear isn’t ready or the kitchen still looks like a mess.

I told her we’re relying on her and asked that she let me know ahead of time if she’s not coming but today two hours late with no heads up.

WWYD?

You need to do the same thing that we’re doing. You need to find somebody else. We had someone lined up who initially wanted four hours 11-3 on Fridays and would do an additional eight hours split over two days whenever she wanted. However, reality seemed to be that she wanted to have us at our scheduled to hers, and not have anyone home to be in the way. Then she just abruptly stopped coming on the live in nanny, my employer found that Housekeeper , now I am in charge of the next search.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would talk to her and tell her all the positives of what you appreciate about her but then get to -- how you're relying on her & when she no shows, the kids can't get ready for their sports & you don't even know until it's late. Tell her that I'm sorry but it's not going work if she does this once more.
I don't understand the kitchen thing but to each his own. Do you just leave everything from the night before?

Thank you. This is good advice. We run out the door at 7am for three drop offs so she cleans up after breakfast and does meal prep for dinner

Got it. I'm usually a softee but No Show, No Call, Unexpectedly Late would unhinge me & force me to set a firm deadline without guilt. It's worse to not know if you have help that day than to know you don't for certain and need to find some.

Maybe she will get back on track but if she doesn't at least you'll know that you're in the market again.
Sometimes I've been too understanding & when I've reminded people of the impact of them not fulfilling their responsibilities, they've shaped up. Especially when they realized their job was in danger.

OP. Thanks again for this sage advice. I was able to speak to her this weekend. She said she’s had some morning appointments so she was late to her first job and needed to maintain her hours there. Because we’re not home she didn’t think I noticed that she wasn’t coming in and she didn’t think it was a problem because she wasn’t charging us. I told her we need that minimum number of hours we both agreed to for this to work.