Cleaning people questions

1

So I have some cleaning people that have been working for me for 20 years. They clean my primary home, airbnb’s, mow my lawn. They are like family and do everything for me.
I have Nexia that allows me to program codes into my Schlage lock.
Last night i get a lock notification at 1:27 am, from my cleaners code. I also get notification at other times all week. My place has been vacant since i had a guest leave early.
I ask them, have they been staying there? They initially deny it but then come clean an hour later, when i dictate a text message asking what is going on.

Do I fire them? Or just let it go. It really sucks, if they had asked i would have said it is no problem.

2

  1. never fire someone unless you have already lined up a replacement.

  2. people who tell untruths are called… liars…

3

What did they say when they “came clean”?

I assume you a remote host. How far away are you?

4

After 20 years I wouldn’t fire them until I’d had a discussion with them and asked the reason.

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5

i asked them had they stayed there, Then i sent them an email. They responded that yes they had stayed there two nights and are very sorry.
i live 25 minutes away from my place, but right now i am out of town for a month. So I could not fire them now, and i do trust them. But this really sucks.

6

If they had worked for me for that long I would maybe take a different approach then a newly hired contractor however they have over stepped and need to reeled back in. IMHO they are taking advantage of the situation because they may feel entitled because they are like family. Time to step in and reiterate the employer /employee relationship.

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7

Even if they are cleaning up after themselves this is essentially stealing. They would be using your utilities and power and not paying for that. What if you had a last-minute booking? A guest wouldn’t necessarily be able to just check right in because the room wouldn’t be ready. To be honest I’m not sure what I would do in your situation but I would also assume that this was not the first time that this happened. I would probably go and do a full inventory to make sure nothing else happened when it was used or Taken

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8

yes very good point. Had i not caught the code entry, they would not have been caught.

9

I would forgive them. They know now that you know when the door is opened and they will never cross that line again. You said they are like family, so if it was your brother…

The bottom line is it will not happen again, and I think they will be humble and extra diligent going forward knowing that you forgave them.

RR

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10

I would ask who actually stayed there. I’m thinking it wasn’t actually your cleaners. What reason would they have for staying there if they live locally? I would guess they actually allowed other friends/family to stay.

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11

they actually live over an hour away. So they needed to be in town early the next morning.

12

How hard would it be to find new cleaners? They probably have been doing this for a while and just got caught. I would wonder what else they have been up to? Are they renting out the place to people they know when it’s vacant? How do you know it’s them staying there? Were they having a party? Were they doing drugs or dealing drugs out of your house? Sorry, I’m a New Yorker and have trust issues LOL Maybe you should put up cameras.

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13

its very hard, they have not been doing it a while because they dont know when it is vacant. I told them this time around, because someone moved out early.

14

Well, the best of us have poor judgement; solid people you consider family….they do everything for you…
Perhaps they were watching TV or taking a luxury shower or finishing up cleaning….in reality this is your call, we don’t know these people, but you have for 20 years!

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15

That doesn’t totally jive with them saying they stayed for two nights and that you said you got notifications all week.

I’d be inclined to let it go, but less so if they continue to lie about it.

16

I’d have a conversation with them, re-establish boundaries and carry on. I can see where they might think there was no harm in staying there. OTOH if they thought as highly of you as you do of them it seems they would have discussed with you first. I can only guess that they thought of doing it late at night and thought it would be too late to message you.

I’d also tell them I’m getting a Ring or other camera because they’ve betrayed your trust. I’d say I hate to have to monitor you but this is the way it will be going forward. That they ultimately admitted to it makes me willing to give another chance. If they did that and denied then that would be a bit much for me.

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17

Now they will use an unguarded window…

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18

For some reason the first thought that came to my mind was domestic abuse and someone needing to get away from that. Like someone else said you are the one that’s known them for 20 years. I would have a hard time trusting them again unless they had a really compelling reason and were very remorseful. I think I’d start looking for a new cleaner. Never good to have all your eggs in one basket anyhow.

19

Before I had my AirBnB I once had my lovely neighbours and their alcoholic 50yo daughter and her 55yo bf over for dinner. They told me a story about how one storm their front window blew in. Being a few sheets to the wind myself I said in those circumstances, and as they have my spare key for emergencies (I was only using it on weekends at the time) they could use it to let themselves in an emergency even if they couldn’t get in contact by phone. The following weekend I left on early Sunday afternoon and came back about 3 hours later. When I walked in the bf was sitting on my lounge drinking cask wine. I went “uh huh, hello” wanting to see what was up first. Then he aid “Oh we thought you’d gone home. By the way K. is asleep in your bed”. She was indeed passed out in my bed. I stayed calm and suggested they leave. I wasn’t really that concerned, people do strange things and it appears their definition of an “emergency” was having nowhere to get day drunk. I did tell her father a couple of weeks later and he was very angry. A year later she did a runner and left her grandson with her parents for 4 years till he finished school. The parents are nice people who take out my rubbish bins and look out for me. As I said sometimes people do strange things and provided it is clear it is not to happen again it is okay to forgive them and move on.

20

There is also a possibility they were renting your place out to others and pocketing the money. They were planning to do something wrong, that’s why they didn’t ask in advance.
Can you just delete their code remotely, since the place is vacant? Or do some guest stays overlap with your absence? Maybe going forward establish a specific cleaning timeframe for every turnover, e.g. “this Wednesday 1-4,” and and send them a new code that is good just for that time period, every time.
If they were deceitful about this, it is more likely they have been deceitful about other things. (Lifting a few rolls of toilet paper and paper towels here and there, etc.) You might want to do a look back and check the trend on supplies – has the volume purchased grown over time?
The human brain is amazing at rationalization, if they are basically decent people they will have told themselves a story “I’ve been working so hard for this person for so long, they owe me.” or “I deserve this.”
Also if they are a group working for you for that long, particularly if it is an individual or family business, it is likely that a large number of cousins, friends, what have you, all have the cleaning code.
Don’t feel obligated to them just because you’ve become comfortable with them.

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