Crazy expectations or just clueless?

[candyshopgirl]

I don't know why but this reminds me of the Jennifer Lopez nanny story. She has had something like 4 or 5 nannies quit. Because she keeps adding more and more tasks and wants them to work like 12-14 hours without breaks. What a bitch

[DeltaSierra]

Obviously I can't speak for all companies- but I can tell you why the company I worked for wouldn't do it.

First- they paid crap. Barely minimum wage and somehow (I was young and naive) got away with not giving us proper breaks and we were expected to eat our lunches while we drove to the next appt. They used incredibly harsh chemicals to make the cleaning go faster, regardless of the eventual damage to the customer's house. A vacation day was unheard of, no health insurance, you had to drive your own car and got paid the absolute min. for mileage.

So, the morale of the employees was the pits, to say the least. Then they'd send us to these HUGE houses and mansions, and since they quoted 2.5 hours to meticulously clean 8,000 sq. foot of living space, we had to seriously haul ass to try and do a halfway decent job. You want to throw in windows and cleaning out the fridge? I couldn't even figure out some of the windows in their houses, and they looked $$$$$$$. The fridge is a whole different hassle, because no matter how thorough or careful you are, you WILL throw out something that they still wanted for whatever reason. (Old people and rich people are notorious for stuff like that).

Lastly, not all services are charged the same cost per hour. Those that require more skill and care cost more. So you could pay someone $50/hr to clean (dust, vacuum, etc) your house- but it will cost more than that to do other things and that's where people cheap out- powerwashing lawn furniture or fencing, washing windows, shampooing carpet, etc.

That's why we have our own private business instead of working for somebody else. We get to pick and choose which cleaners we use (which aren't harmful to our customers or ourselves) and take breaks when we need them, days off/vacation time, etc.

I've never cleaned a mansion before, as all the places we clean are simple houses, but we had the privilege last summer of detailing a brand new house prior to the owners moving in - which entailed washing *every single wall/ceiling/floor/window* of a 4-floor, 8 bedroom, 2 dining room, 3 living room house with FULL basement. Was a HUGE job, took us 5 10-hour days and it was great. Owners were so pleased we got a $100 bonus. A place like that is a joy to clean because you can look at what you have done and really see a difference. They had hardwood floors throughout the house that positively gleamed like mirrors when we were done, and a rockwork fireplace with rock artistically set to look like an arbutus tree was growing up the chimney.

So in all - I like my job. I'm happy with what we charge, our clients are happy with our work, else they wouldn't call us back or keep us on for 5+ years (most of our regular clients we've had long term, though we do do some once-a-year top-to-bottom housecleanings for a few people.) Its all in the way you approach things. I'd never give an estimate for a job that was unrealistic. Usually or estimates are over what it takes us as we try to be as quick and efficient as we can.