Wednesday 24 April 2024

Play it in your own time!

 

As we shared before, I am supposed to be getting help in cleaning our home. But it has turned into a mess and I have fallen in the cracks. There was a woman who came for three weeks, but she was woefully indolent and a liar.

We are paying a co-payment to have her clean for two hours a week and sadly she wasn't worth the money.

For the first half hour she chatted and I had to bring her gently back to why she was here. Then she bustled around and "cleaned" stuff. 

When I say "cleaned" I am being generous. We could see no difference in our home cleanliness even after she was gone.

Chris was ill and in our bed, so I said to her that she needn't worry about changing it this visit. I asked her to pay particular care in the bathroom as it was looking like it needed a good clean. Particularly the bath. And I wanted the vinyl floors washed.

With half an hour to go, she came out and sat on the living room carpet in front of our beautiful backyard and watched the birds and played Candy Crush on her phone.

Knowing that she hadn't done much I asked her if she had cleaned the bathroom and toilet. She nearly shook her head off in affirmation. I had my doubts though.

I asked her if she had mopped the floors and she said "You don't really want them washed today, do you? They still look clean!" 

When her knock off time came, I begrudgingly signed the paperwork, confirming she had been.

Suspicious, I went into the bathroom. There was my hair still in the bath, the cap of the shampoo on the floor of the shower and Chris's whiskers in the hand basin. There was a cotton bud on the floor.

I took a quick look at the toilet too. How can I put this delicately? I can't. There was grunge still at the back of it. So without changing our bed or mopping the floors or doing the bathroom and toilet, she spent a total of one hour vacuuming our very small home. I was angry. I hate being lied to.

That afternoon, I rang my aged home care co-ordinator and told her what had happened. If they couldn't replace her, I would prefer none. I didn't want her back in my house.

So five weeks passed and I heard nothing. Turns out the home care case manager for me has been off for the last three weeks and I have fallen between the cracks.

So when I get someone to help me is anyone's guess. And for me, it can't come sooner. Not that our home looks like a burgler has ransacked it. I keep it tidy and it is always decluttered.

But my home is dirty. As any homemaker will tell you- it effects how you feel. And physically with the fibromyalgia flare brought on by driving a lot last week, it sucks even more.

There's not much I can do but wait again and hope they send me someone who has a decent work ethic.
Though from what I have heard, none of them does a really good job.

But as Sacrificial HomeKeepers know, we have to ditch perfectionism and accept that anything is better than nothing. Except the home carer who used our money to play Candy Crush in my living room. 

She should play it in  her own time!


He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. Proverbs 31:9

6 comments:

  1. Next time, be assertive. Tell them when they arrive that when they are done, you will do a walk thru to see their work BEFORE you will sign their paperwork. If it isn't clean, you won't sign it. If you catch them on their phone, tell them to go home. This isn't personal, it's business. You're paying for a service. I suspect most people are doing what you did, just signing without seeing what has been done.

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    1. I will have to be, Cynthia. We received the invoice today and I felt very ticked off. I feel like we have wasted our money. Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

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  2. Ugh, I'm so sorry this happened, Glenys. I would have been very disappointed too. I understand how you feel about having a clean house, and you deserve someone to do the work if they're going to get paid for it. Hopefully you'll hear soon about a new person and they will do an excellent job for you.

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  3. I hope so too, Lisa! thanks for sharing a cuppa with me today!

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  4. I'm so sorry you had this experience, Glenys. It makes me so cross when people don't do their jobs. How frustrating for you.

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    1. Yes not doing her job was frustrating. But her telling me lies made me cross. I hate being lied to... thanks for taking tea me with today, April.

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