[charliesangel999]

Hi, Eveyone..
                     I have been Self Employed for 5yrs, i thought i was lucky to have got myself a contract with the owner of a Serviced Apartment Business at first cleaning around 15 Apartments per wk as weekly cleans and checkouts, as well as having Private Clients, as time went on the Apartments grew to over 40, i have a good friend who helped me out as well as family, i finally employed my friend on a full time basis, i was charging 8.25 per hour, i then raised my prices to 20.00 an hourfor 2 of us, the Apartments we clean are Advertised as Luxury Apartments, i have very high standards, the Owner of the Serviced Apartments did take on more Staff who were Employed by the Business, unfortunatly they do not have the same standards as me and i have found myself having to work harder in cleaning up after them. The business Owner has not ever given any training to the other cleaners as regards to what should be done. I am getting tired of asking that these cleaners be brought up to standard as the owner complains to me that the Apartments are taking to long for me to clean.. I have pointed out the fact that they are not being cleaned properly by the other cleaners, and there should be a weekly standard and checkout standard..So that my Employee an i arnt carrying the other cleaners. Now i have been told to Lower my Standards or they will have to let me go. As you can imagine i am furious as i believe that the other Cleaners should be brought up to the original standards.. I believe that i am being pushed out for the want of cheaper Staff. There is now problems of Public Liability with concerns of Basic Hygiene in the cleanliness of the Apartments as i know of a couple of Guests who have caught infections.. I seriously think i should leave before i get the blame as know they will blame anyone but themselves, there is serious management issues with this company, its difficult as they are my main source of income, i can't see things improving as these problems have been ignored for a good few months.. Has anyone got any advice i have thought about reporting them to the relevant Authority as i am seriously going against my grain in lowering my Standards to there's as there non existant..I'm just not sure how i go about it without any comebacks..

Thanks,  any advice would be helpful

[steve doyle]

when you talk about lowering your standards reading between the lines i think your saying whilst you want to spend 3hrs per unit they want you to spend 2hrs? (eg)

assuming its time constraints, my initial feeling would be that they buy your services and so can buy however little they want and it wouldent bother me from that point of view, its their responsibility to buy enough time off you to get the job done to the correct standard regarding health and hygeine.

Having said that i would do one thing to cover yourself, I would write down the tasks your company will provide within the time they are paying you for, that way your responsibilities are clear.you could possibly do say 3 options, a 2hr list, 2.5hr list and 3hr list and let them choose "which suits them best".

from then on your duties are clearly defined and your only resposibilities are to your "list".

I dont think you should think of it as lowering your standards, more that they are lowering the amount of cleaning duties they wish to purchase from you.


if i asked you to do my house once a week for a hour and you said to get it to your standard it needs 2 hours, i might say well i only want an hour thanks! are you going to refuse to work for me? Im not an idiot (no comments thx!) i know i wont get 2 hrs worth in 1hr but thats what i want from you,1hr. likewise if i want 2 hrs worth, i know how to get it!


steve


p.s
If you do have concerns of peoples health being at risk, a quick annonymous phone call to environmental health will do it. when they ask for your name they sometimes need reminding that the key to the annonymous tip off is actually to remain annonymous!