I have no etat d'ame about having a cleaner. I work full time and hate cleaning. My cleaner is part of one of those service companies so I get taxed less for employing her. It's a win-win situation. My house is clean, she has a job. Yippee!
What a nice story! I love happy endings :)
Thanks, Bruce. And thanks, Brian, for the fascinating new perspectives on the wonderful world of cleaning. Clearly not such a humdrum job after all. It sounds like there could be a Jackie Collins-style book set in and around London's cleaners and their employers. But I'll let Jackie tackle that one. Is she still alive?
Very well penned, Mark. Always like to read your florid,fun contributions.
My sister in London is a 'cleaning' lady. That is to say that she has small company and employs several women but does some of the 'posh' clients herself. She no longer employs Ethio[ians, Ukrainians and so on though. Not because she harbours any prejudice at all. It is simply that clients who had them in their houses insisted on paying only half (or less) the contracted rate. They insisted that since these people were illegals (I don't know either way, but knowing my sis probably some were) they should not be paid full rate. Strange business when one hears about it. Women who do not do it themselves because they 'do not know how', others who don't have anywhere to keep a vacuum cleaner, etc. However, several of the cleaners have had affairs with husbands or even the husbands/boyfriends left for the cleaner. Sis has been to four weddings out of cleaning carreers thus far. She therefore has permanent ads locally for new applicants for the job. It is far more interesting than anybody can imagine - I think at least from the snippets I pick up.