Cleaning Services and Secret Fears

One business I wouldn’t like to run is a house cleaning service. Having been on the receiving end of one for two-and-a-half years now I’ve had a parade of different cleaners show up and I get the impression that it’s hard to keep up with the turnover of employees. The first girl the service sent, who I had the longest, spoiled me. She was a college student who was working on her degree to become a drug rehab counselor and we had great conversations while we worked. (I do my own dusting.) After she left, the company sent a different person almost every month for a long while. One girl couldn’t talk and work at the same time so I had to remove myself to another room or it would have cost me twice as much, and another girl revealed too much. I mean if you’re a stranger cleaning someone’s house why would you tell the home owner about getting caught for shoplifting at Target? Is that common small talk in her world? She got fired I found out later. Still, I was glad that from day one I've always put my purse, keys, cell phone and box of better jewelry in my car when a cleaner is coming. And I keep all my medications in an unconventional place. Some pills go for big bucks on the street so I don’t make it easy for anyone---family, friend or stranger---to pilferage mine.

For four-five months I had the same cleaner, a Spanish woman with quite a chip on her shoulders about the service only paying her $10.00 an hour when they charge people like me $27.00 and I can hardly blame her. But I don’t set the wages or the rates so other than sympathize there isn’t much I can do. We had some interesting conversations, though. One time she talked about how most of her clients seem to look down on house cleaners and she said: “What if this is the best I’ll ever be able to do in my life? Is that so bad? I shouldn’t be disrespected for honest work!” Another cleaner, a sweet, black girl---and the best cleaner in the bunch---thanked me for talking to her! Can you believe that? She and my Spanish cleaner both told me most clients don’t say a peep. They just disappear to another part of the house. I may be breaking a code regarding domestic workers, but I don’t care. I look forward to conversations coming with clean floors and bathrooms. To me, it’s the best part of the deal.

This month the service sent someone new again and she would answer my questions but she didn’t seem to want to engage in conversation beyond that. Okay, I wasn’t going to force it but I did pass through rooms she was in from time to time and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Instead of moving the bathroom scales, she mopped around it. Instead of moving the toaster she wiped the counter-top around it! Instead of moving the kitchen chairs, she mopped around them, too! I’ve never seen anyone clean that way before in my life. And when she left I had to scrub the kitchen sink because---well, it still needed it. I was talking to my youngest niece on the phone afterward and I told her I couldn't decide if I should call the service and clue them in on the girl’s less than acceptable cleaning methods. Most of these girls need the work so I wouldn’t want someone to loss their job, but I don’t want to pay for work like that again. “If she shows up again," my niece said, "tell her that you’re really picky and would like her to clean under things as well as around them.” Why didn’t I think of that? 

I have an older sister-in-law who for many years has had a parade of low paid, Medicaid provided aids coming to the house to help care for her wheelchair bound daughter. And, oh, the horror stories she can tell about turnovers, stealing, neglect of duties and outright abuse. With house cleaners it’s not a big deal if they don’t get the sink clean but when a healthcare worker doesn’t use a clean catheter you’ve got problems. She says the services tell her and her daughter not to get personally involved with the aids. Don’t ask about their families, what their hobbies are, etc. etc. Nothing. But my sister-in-law and I agree that it’s hard to have someone in your home for hours at a time and not talk to them. How do you show respect for a domestic worker if you ignore their presence? How do you gauge if they're trustworthy, or not, if you don’t get a sense of what that person is all about?

It’s scary getting older and knowing someday I may need more outside help than I have now. Whatever my future may bring, there are two things I don’t want to happen to me. 1) That I’ll withdraw and not trust anyone, letting my house and life collapse around me, and 2) that I’ll be too trusting and you’ll see my story on the nightly news, the victim of healthcare worker abuse or a fraud where someone emptied out my bank account. When my fears about growing older creep out from their dark hiding place, these are the things that tippy-toe around inside my head. ©