‘My cleaner’s vile habit makes more mess – for £18 an hour’

Families may hire a cleaner if they have a lot to do around the house and can’t handle it alongside their other responsibilities – but what would you do if your cleaner was actually making more work for you? 

One woman was left horrified when she noticed that someone she hired was acting suspiciously around her home.

“A couple of weeks ago I noticed a cigarette butt in a small gu pot on our back porch,” she shared, claiming it was unusual as neither she nor her partner smoke.

They questioned who it could be, and her husband reckoned it may have been the cleaner – but she had her suspicions that it might be the gardeners who were also working for them.

“I thought it might be the gardeners, my husband mentioned he thought it was the cleaner,” she explained on Mumsnet.

But after they contemplated who it could be, they caught the culprit red-handed on CCTV.

She wrote: “This week, our cleaner who charges £18 per hour went out for a cigarette break, we have CCTV at the back, and I saw that she chucked her cigarette butt into our hydrangea bush.

“I’m not happy about this at all. I think it’s disrespectful and disgusting that I now have to clean up my cleaner’s dirty cigarette butt.

“I also often make her a tea or glass of water, in the past it has irritated me that she doesn’t actually put the cup in the dishwasher and I have to clean it up once she’s gone.”

She said that she knew she needed to “raise this with her”, but she asked others for advice on what to do. “I’d get a new cleaner, she sounds absolutely shocking,” someone fumed, whereas another person suggested that she just “get her an ashtray”.

The original poster said in response: “For the record, we do not smoke. I do not have an ashtray and do not see why I should have to provide one which I would then need to clean out. We also have a porch next to our baby’s nursery and often have the window open so I don’t like the fact she smokes on our property without asking.”

Someone else raged: “Vile. You are not being unreasonable at all and I would fire her. She shouldn’t be smoking on your property and four hours cleaning can and should be done without a break. Chucking them in your garden shows such disrespect, I would question what other disrespectful things she does in your home.”

However, not everyone saw it as a huge problem. A final comment read: “Did she set the bush on fire? No. So no problem. Just bin the cigarette butt and get on with your day.”