Cleaner Karma

[smokingboot]

New brilliant cleaner, absolutely superb, does everything well. I pop out of my study to stop the washing up machine's triumphant beep (the appliances in this house are tremendously needy; if you don't attend to them when they complete a task, they just keep making little 'notice me' noises) and there she was on her phone in our utility room, having left the hoover standing still in the corridor still switched on.

Really?

She told me it was a new client. That's all fine, but I would rather she didn't spend my money while she answers the phone. I know it's not much, but we've just had one of those smart meters put in so we can keep an eye on energy expenditure, and it's been a bit eyebrow raising so far. Her phone rings, she answers it ASAP, but it takes, what, a second if that, to switch the hoover off before she continues. So why not do it?

A suspicious mind would say it's because she knows I am in my study, am unlikely to check, and will just assume she is working if the vacuum cleaner is on. I have no idea how long she was on the phone for, and I don't care, as long as the work is properly finished within the time slot agreed. She seems to have done her job competently as usual but she left 10 minutes early, and there was a distinct difference in the atmosphere between us. I don't want to be put in a position where I need to say, 'please don't leave the hoover on if you are not using it.' If I get a cleaner in to save me time, why would I want to spend that time admonishing the cleaner? The idea is that I don't have to bother, that the work is done, paid for, out of sight, out of mind. It embarrasses and mortifies me to think of 'telling off' a fellow adult whose services I pay for. I'm not the borough memsahib.

But I do think that expectation exists. I think a gent is expected to simply not care about the state of his house, especially if he is a bachelor, while the lady is supposed to be hawklike in her sense of order, aware of the minutiae, looking for reasons to correct. There is a sense of indulgence for him, of wariness with her. I don't want to think about it, don't want to play the game, never wanted to see myself as the gentle tyrant over a household full of staff scuttling around in dread of me. I don't want Downton Abbey, I just want a clean house and no hassle.

I am probably over reacting, a combination of frustration at my mother ('The phone is not working again there is a hooligan in Granada who is causing mischief and making my phone not work this phone does what it likes,etc, etc') and Orb Lord trying to make contact ('Debbie was my spiritual sister but she deserted me because she wouldn't believe that crop circles are caused by orbs who become inner Earth lizard people with a deep need to gaze at my c**k.')

So OK, maybe I am easily irritated right now. I still don't understand why cleaning staff lose their bright edge after a few weeks. The house doesn't change and we don't change. Karma then. Damn.