TL, DR: I washed and put away some towels. My client/s may not have wanted me to do that.
Full version: A family I clean for is coming back this weekend from a two-week vacation. Before they left, I was asked to come in every three days to feed the hamsters, and to put the house back in order.
The first day I showed up, there were towels strung everywhere in the living and dining area of the downstairs. This did not strike me as entirely unusual; there are always towels and swimsuits to deal with. Everyone’s always in and out of the pool, either exercising or practicing. So I pulled them off, added them to the rest of the laundry, and set about doing dishes, making the beds, emptying the trash…basically making it so that when the family comes back, they won’t have to do anything except unpack. And of course, I’ve been feeding the hamsters.
Today I texted to give them an update. In the reply, I was told, “We didn’t expect you to do laundry.”
Now I have the very uncomfortable feeling that I was not supposed to have removed those towels. Except I’m not sure what purpose they were meant to serve. If it was to keep the furniture from fading, the dining table is glass, and the dining chairs and living room set are all black leather. If it was for security reasons, there is nothing expensive or expensive-looking visible from the windows. And the funny thing is, two open purses were in clear view when I got there! With stuff in them, but I didn’t look; I closed them and put them somewhere they could be seen, but not from the windows.
So I’m not sure if I screwed up or not. They have a million towels, and spreading them out could have been a way of choosing which ones to take with. What do y’all think?
Huh. Well, to me at least, it doesn’t seem like you did anything wrong at all. You were asked to put the house back in order, and you did. If there was some special reason to have a bunch of towels hanging around the place, it was their responsibility to tell you about it, not yours to magically read their minds. In any case, I’d just continue on as usual, and if they have a problem with anything you did, they can approach you about it. Was the overall tone of the reply email disapproving? If not, it’s possible that while they didn’t expect you to do the laundry, it’s a pleasant surprise to them.
Unless and until you hear more, I’d suggest taking it at face value–you’ve done more work than they expected. It’s hard to convey tone in text messages, but it doesn’t look like anything negative.
No, they didn’t sound disapproving. Yes, it would have been on them to say “Leave those towels.” I feel better now, thanks! I’ll let you know if the worst happens after all.
(Also, if they’re worried about how the house looks from the outside, perhaps they could cover the windows.)
If you were supposed to put the house in order, it would be pretty ridiculous to leave a bunch of towels around unless you had been specifically told to do so. They probably just meant they felt bad that they left the house with the stuff out and you had to do extra work, and that they didn’t expect you to do so much.
Relax. If they are crazy enough to object, then they are crazy and there is nothing you can do about it. If you are crazy for worrying about it, and you are crazy for worrying about it, you are crazy and there is nothing you can do about it. You are welcome to come to my house next.
If on the off chance they are not crazy, it is because they might think you expect a lot more money for this work. Relax.
On edit:
And on the off chance that you are a crazy person that gets really unwound because you’ve been spotted for the looney tune you are and was hoping that nobody would ever say anything out loud, relax, we are all in the crazy boat together and we love you too.
ZipperJJ: I meant they could put up some kind of permanent window treatment. The windows in all the other rooms have curtains or blinds, and this room has nothing.
AnaMen: You’re probably right. Still, people have their ways. I’ve had two different clients tell me not to dust their wine bottles. One because she wanted the risk of breakage to be on her, and the other because he liked the look of dusty bottles.
Leaper: No, the laundry fit within the four-hour session they said they’d pay me for.
The Second Stone: I wish you’d heard Psycho Cindy. (Not her real name.)
If there’s anything negative, I suspect they may think you were fishing for higher pay. Don’t mention the towels again, especially in the context of pay, even to say, “I hope you didn’t think I did the laundry because I expected an extra tip, or anything,” and you should be fine.
Regardless of what expectations were or were not violated, even in the worst-case scenario, I’d say that “impending doom” is a wee bit of an overreaction. I’d expect that, at worst, you might end up having to shrug and say, “OK, sorry”.
Like said above, I think they’re just concerned about the scope of your services. Though it does suggest that you guys didn’t have matching expectations and that might affect your financial arrangement. I assume there’s an extra fee for laundry? Doing the laundry is certainly a lot more work than feeding a few hamsters.
When people’s ways deviate from normal expectations, it’s on them to tell you. It is kind of weird not to want the wine bottles dusted. That’s why they’ve specifically instructed you in this case – because they know otherwise you’d think you should do the normal thing and dust them. So if no one said not to do the normal thing and wash the towels you found around, they can’t get legitimately upset and think you should have known not to, even if they really didn’t want you to do it.
Of course people do get upset at others for no good reason sometimes, but a client like that will do it eventually no matter what you do, unless you learn to read minds.
Even if they did have some curious reason for having the towels strewn all about, I doubt they would be upset to find you cleared them away.
You’re a housekeeper / cleaner, they can’t be too stunned this is your natural inclination, but they maybe didn’t intend to make for work for you, it sounds like.
I suspect they just wanted you to know that it was beyond their expectations, in more of an, “Oh, you didn’t have to!” Kinda way.
Don’t worry about it at all, I wouldn’t even mention it. If there was a reason for the towels, they may share it with you on their return, who knows?
Don’t beat yourself up for doing what housekeepers do though, that would be silly!
If so, you may be feeling Post Traumatic feelings of guilt. You may feel that you had some small part in the mess that America currently finds itself - ever since the 2007 banker big steal and meltdown.
“Before they left, I was asked to come in every three days to feed the hamsters, and to put the house back in order.”
“We didn’t expect you to do laundry.”
Does not compute. I’d be interested to know why they didn’t think you’d do their laundry, and if they didn’t want you to do it. My guess is they were pleasantly surprised you did it.
Extra fee, are you kidding? Laundry is my primary duty in this house. With five people, it has to be. Which is why I was so taken aback. In this case, there was two hampers’ worth even without the towels; three with. And who knows how much they’ll bring back. I certainly have no intention of bringing up the subject, though.