Firing your cleaning help

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  • #1375960
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    When should a person hired to clean be fired?
    Is it a good enough reason if everything is shoved into random places throughout the house and a lot of things end up broken?

    #1376292
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    What if they pack away dirty dishes?

    #1376298
    Joseph
    Participant

    Cleaning help earns tenure. Once they’ve been employed for three months they have a chazaka and may not be fired.

    #1376302
    jakob
    Participant

    Anytime she asks for a raise. Besides it not being a full time job to ask for raises your also going to be the cause for all your neighbors & friend having to pay more for their cleaning help cause they will also ask for a raise.

    how will you ever make up for the loss of everyone higher cost of cleaning help?

    #1376307
    sariray
    Participant

    When your cleaning help is increasing stress instead of reducing it, time to find someone else. Your paying the money- find someone who will do the job with a modicum or intelligence and neatness. Find someone new and efficient . Training is a pain but worth the time for good help.

    #1376335
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Jakob, that is a terrible reason to fire someone. If you don’t want to give a raise, you can say no, but to argue that it’s unethical to pay more to your cleaning lady because that will bid up the price is disturbing. She is a person too. (That’s also the reason to fire her if she does a bad job: because she is a person, not an object of worship.)

    #1376377
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Joseph, would that apply to me in a non-cleaning job if I offer to do the cleaning for three months?

    #1376647
    jakob
    Participant

    rebyidd

    you misunderstood, sure you can say no & she can leave the job on her own if she will only stay if you give her that raise but if you give in to her demand for a raise then you will soon be causing all your friend & neighbors & entire community to be paying the new higher price demanded as word spreads in the cleaning ladies union.

    #1376951
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    So you’re saying that we are all obligated to underpay our cleaning help because allowing a fair market wage causes other people to have to pay more? Does the same apply to your boss? Should your boss make sure never to give you a raise because then other employers will have to pay their employees more?

    #1376984
    apushatayid
    Participant

    when the cleaning help, isnt cleaning, i think that is as good a reason as any to relieve them of their duties.

    #1377076
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    But how do you define “isn’t cleaning”? If the house looks superficially clean, but inside all the cabinets and drawers everything’s a mess, does the house count as clean?

    #1377169
    Meno
    Participant

    Besides it not being a full time job to ask for raises…

    What’s that supposed to mean? A part-time employee is never entitled to a raise?

    #1377413
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    When the work done doesn’t meet your standards and you have already explained and given warnings, it’s time for the cleaning person to go.

    We recently let go a cleaning person because both Mrs. CTL and I were home on 3 days that she came to clean. We found she was cleaning around things, without lifting/moving them. This was unacceptable to us. We don’t pay $30 per hour for someone to ‘neaten’ when she should be cleaning.

    #1377453
    apushatayid
    Participant

    “But how do you define “isn’t cleaning”? ”

    Define “cleaning” to the hire. Tell them this is your expectation, if they dont meet that expectation, then relieve them of their duties.

    #1377506
    jakob
    Participant

    meno

    please learn your definitions & understand why cleaning help or a waiter that only works once a week doesnt deserve a raise versus full or part time

    Full time=9am-5pm
    part time=9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm etc..
    cleaning help=once or twice a week for a few hours (is she comes every day t oclean then shes a full time worker & deserves a raise after working for you for a long time)

    #1377507
    jakob
    Participant

    rebyidd

    1)were not talking about underpaid, she is getting the correct pay but wants more then what she is getting now.

    2)when you work full time then yes workers get raises after a year of devoted work & each worker get his raise privately between boss & worker. this is cleaning help that comes to your home once or twice a week that we are talking about

    #1377526
    Meno
    Participant

    Jakob,

    So if someone works part time for 40 years, they aren’t entitled to a raise?

    #1377531
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Jakob, if you are purposely keeping her pay low instead of paying what her work is worth to you, that is less than fair pay. Experienced work is more valuable.

    #1377631
    jakob
    Participant

    meno

    part time can get a raise too but not a cleaning lady who just works once or twice a week for a few hours total.

    #1377666
    huju
    Participant

    There is a dispiriting level of hostility toward cleaning workers in the first 19 posts. And why is the hiring and firing of cleaning staff any different than hiring and firing any other staff? My schvigger replaced her cleaning lady (whom she referred to as a “girls,” notwithstanding that they were generally over age 25) every 6 months and was never satisfied by any of them. My spouse and I paid slightly more than my schvigger and the average tenure was more than 5 years. And, by the way, my schvigger’s house was always as clean as ours.

    #1377667
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Jakob, the bottles of milk I buy once or twice a week get a raise occasionally. So a cleaning lady will need a raise sometimes to keep buying milk for her family.

    #1377961
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Huju, there are some people who think that cleaning ladies should be fired for wanting to be compensated for their work, while others, like Joseph, think that three months is a chazaka and after that there is no firing. And there is a very big difference between household cleaning help and most other workers: people who hire cleaning help often don’t have any other employees and have no idea how or when to fire them if necessary.

    #1378286
    huju
    Participant

    To RebYid23: you make a good point about employers of cleaning help having no other employees and not knowing how to act as an employer. That leaves them with the Torah and their own inclinations for guidance. I have actually studied what the Torah says about employment, but what it says must be mixed with market conditions. People ask for raises because they want them. Few employers offer raises unless asked, or unless prevailing market conditions require it.

    #1378317
    Meno
    Participant

    Jakob,

    So if my cleaning lady works 3 hours a week for 40 years, she isn’t entitled to a raise?

    #1378373
    jakob
    Participant

    sure after 40 years of devotion & loyalty she deserves a raise but not after 1 or 2 years when it comes to just 3 or 6 hours a week

    #1378378
    Meno
    Participant

    What about after 20 years?

    #1378377
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Huju
    I wrote one of those first 19 post and displayed no hostility towards cleaning people.
    I wrote of dismissing a cleaning person who cleaned around things instead of lifting and cleaning the entire surface (after be told and warned that it was a requirement).

    I was paying $30 per hour for the cleaning person and we supply all equipment and supplies. $240 for an 8 hour day with a coffee break and paid lunch is not low wages for a job that requires no formal education.

    We had no problem hiring a new person at those rates and conditions. I the past 12 years we have had 3 cleaning ladies. One left to get married and raise her children. One retired when she reached 65. The one who was dismissed had been with us about a year. Through the local grapevine we have found out that 3 other households had let her go because her work quality went down.

    #1378437
    huju
    Participant

    To CTLawyer: I was going to point out that my comment was directed at “most of the first 19 comments,” but when I double-checked, I saw that I did not write that. I apologize for shmearing you with too broad a brush.

    #1378486
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @huju
    apology accepted.
    I am of the generation where I usually heard cleaning help referred to as ‘the girl’ and find that reprehensible, even worse ‘goyta.’
    My parents (and by extension myself and siblings) always paid a good wage to the cleaning personnel. After all,if they are to be trusted to clean in an environment with valuables (silver, flatware, jewelry) they should never feel a need or temptation to supplement a too meager salary.

    #1378570
    apushatayid
    Participant

    “So if my cleaning lady works 3 hours a week for 40 years, she isn’t entitled to a raise?”

    she is entitled to ask for X per hour and the employer is entitled to reply, sure, or make a counter offer. or say, get lost.

    #1378825
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    You can refuse to give a raise because you don’t want to part with your money, but the number of hours per week doesn’t disqualify her from a raise.

    #1387374
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    What if she damages property?

    #1388017
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Is it okay to employ someone who has a deep personal grudge against a member of the household?

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