Hiring teenagers and expectations...

[I Believe!!!]

Hi everyone....I need some good advice here. This is a bit long but I sure appreciate your thoughts.

I've got a really nice gal who's our neighbor's daughter that I've hired in the last 6 months for baby sitting and cleaning our home. She's 16, a sophmore and seems pretty responsible, she watches her own brothers and sisters, is part of a volleyball team, does well in school etc.

Most of the time she comes over two nights a week and cleans for me for about 1.5 hours while I'm at the house. I have her clean our bathroom (including the tub), sweep our floors, mop, gather dishes, dust living room furniture, wipe down counters etc. Nothing super duper hard.

In the last couple of times (especially when babysitting) it seems there are things that don't get done, things like not a complete sweeping job or getting underneath baskets or around stools and hard to get areas. Everytime she comes over I ask her to make sure to do those things but it seems like I have to breath over her shoulder to get her to do it.

She gets the bathroom done ok, but it seems she doesn't really touch the tub (which isn't extremely dirty).

Tonight is my night out and hubby is out of town, so I asked her if she'd like to babysit for me and do some cleaning as well and she said yes.

Now, I pay her separately for the cleaning and the babysitting. She records how long she's cleaned while babysitting and pay her 7/hour plus the 5/hour for watching the kids (who are supposed to be in bed).

I asked her to put my three year old to bed at 6:30 and my 8 year old at 8:00 and to have him go play in his room so she could get some cleaning done. So it seems reasonable that she'd be able to have enough time and the kids are really good kids and I got home at 8:30

I came home tonight and payed her, expecting that it wouldn't be exactly how I like it since she's watching the kids too. She said that she worked an hour and a half cleaning.

Well, after she left I walked around the house and it seems that she only swept the wood floors(barely) and vaccumed the living room (which is not large) and two area rugs and kind of wiped the counters down.

The bathroom was untouched, unswepted, the furniture (I just have her dust in living room) was not dusted at all. It just didn't seem like she hardly cleaned!!!

When I came home I noticed that she had the tv on and was eating (which would be fine if she's hungry or done with her work).

I decided to call her and tell her that I didn't feel that an hour and a half of work was done and felt that she needed to come and take care of the rest of the things she hadn't done.

She seemed adament that she'd work for that length of time but was quick to offer to clean again. It didn't seem like she felt there was anything really wrong or that she realized that her work wasn't good at all.

We agreed that she's going to come over tomorrow to clean, but I'm not feeling good about having her clean anymore while babysitting and am wanting to sit and chat with her as to whether she really wants this job. If she does I want to ask her to be more thorough about her work without me constantly reminding her. I've even got a written out list for her as to what I want clean.

I'm trying to figure out if this is just typical teen stuff and what's the secret teen way to handle this.

Also I just feel like she's not telling the truth about the amount of time she worked and that she's consistently doing work I'm not happy with. At the same time she's my neighbor's daughter and I want to try to handle this as congenial as possible, especially if I'm thinking about just having her babysit. I want to also stay on good terms with my neighbors and hope this doesn't cause friction.

[Tenbear2808]

LOL! I know this is serious but thinking of a teen cleaning anything makes me laugh!

My personal advice, just have her babysit. Anything further could also possibly destroy a friendship with her mother.

Teenagers have other things on the brain, and unless you want to put up cameras and stuff, its a you said, she said. Never a good situation.

She just sounds typical.

Now having said that, my greatest concern would be my children. If she is neglecting the house cleaning and if there are any other indications that she might not be performing her duties as babysitter, you might have to rethink that too.

Been a long time but my daughter since my daughter was a teen, but this would be typical behavior for her. And teens that I know or heard of.

They are self-absorbed (not all but most) in dealing with all the things that get thrown at them at their age. There's girl talk and movies and snacking and talking to boyfriends on the phone.

Now this is just my opinion.

There are also some teens (in the minority) that this would not apply to.

[I Believe!!!]

:hug Thanks for your thoughts! In thinking about it, I think what I will do is just have her babysit, as you suggested and when I want the house cleaned have her do it on a non babysitting day.

When she's over for just cleaning she does pretty good with a few exceptions. She does enough that it's a help to have her over. This way I'm working with her instead of running her completely off.

[mmullig]

hehehe... this sounds like a teenager. Most teenagers do not pay attention to detail and do not know the shortcuts or speed events that us old women do. :) It is likely that she did spend 1.5 hrs cleaning, but will not get as much done in that time as you would. If she isn't doing the work to your satisfaction, hire an adult. Teens typically do not pay attention to detail and will overlook dust that you see.

[CircleSlide]

Don't mean to be contrary but, I have a cleaning business and we charge $25 - $30 an hour so she is very underpaid (although she sounds like not a good cleaner so she probably doesn't deserve that much), average house is $120. Also when my daughter babysits she gets around $10 an hour. She should probably never be asked to do both, babysitting is a job, and that is where her complete attention should be. Save the cleaning for when you are home or hire a professional.

Ok that being said, I am very picky who cleans for me, and believe it or not not everyone can do it. You would think that it would be easy but nooooooooo. Also my teenager can't clean for anything but my 10 year old can keep up with me and does an outstanding job, it really depends on the person.

[ByHisGrace]

I would definitely just have her watching the kids and clean separately. You do have her watching 2 kids so that's a lot right there....even if your kids are well behaved, it's a lot of responsibilty.

I was going to comment on what you pay her too, in the end it's probably not worth it to her and that's why she does just a so-so job. Just my opinion! It is a lot of work, cleaning the bathroom plus tub, mopping and then all the little things like dusting and vaccuming/sweeping the floor.

[I Believe!!!]

As far as payment, we live in a rural area and even though I try to pay more than 7, they (teenagers around here) won't take it. It's really wierd, I have to fight to pay them 7 which is the closest to minimum wage I can get them to take. Even if I sneak extra to them, they come and give it back....I'm NOT kidding. :scratch

Now that I've had a good nights sleep and am thinking a little clearer, I think I know what my issue is.

Usually this gal does better work in the time alloted, even while babysitting (I know that she's good with the kids because they love having her over and rave about her), but I ended up coming home earlier than usual last night, so she probably didn't have enough time. That is totally understandable, the kids are more important and usually if something's not done I don't say anything.

So, knowing that in the past what she can accomplish in 1.5 hours it really bothers me that it seems she didn't tell the truth about how long she took. If she wasn't able to get to things I would rather she be up front and just tell me and then we could work something out.

Last night I told her to please don't hesitate to let me know if she just couldn't get to things while babysitting and even asked her if it she would rather separate the jobs so that she'd be able to get things done. I told her that I wouldn't be upset or anything.....just that I'm understanding and flexible in working things out.

Her answer was no that she was fine.

I'd like to continue to have her work for me, but I don't want an undercurrent of unresolved things between us......I want to be wise in how I talk with her today, careful not to come across as cutting her down (I know teenagers are pretty sensitive) and if she just didn't have enough time I want her to feel ok to just tell me.

Thanks for "listening", dh is out of town and usually I bounce this stuff off of him.

[CircleSlide]

:hug Always good to get some other takes on it!:thumb

[funmudder]

My teens usually start off doing a great job at first and slack off as the months go by. I have to sit down with them and have THEM tell me what it is they are supposed to do.

More often than not they are bored with the repetition and think that slacking off every once in a while is no big deal, that they will just be more thorough 'next time'. I ask em what makes them think there will be a next time if they didn't do what they were paid to do this time?:pound

[I Believe!!!]

All right I've made a decision.

My mother in law (who is the sweetest, kindest lady I know) stayed with the kids for a week while dh and I were on a much needed vacation.

She mentioned that she thought this gal is really slow in her work (which I've felt as well) and that she does not clean the tub.....which I wondered about as well.

I think she says that she does things, but really hasn't and thinks I don't notice. That's it, after last night I'm going to tell her that I'm not going to hire her for cleaning anymore....she does good with the kids (they had a great time last night with her) but I think she doesn't like to clean. Period.

As it has turned out there is another gal here in the neigborhood who does an excellent job (always has) when I hire her. I wasn't able to hire her before because she worked at another job. She's decided that she wants to reduce her hours while going to college and work at a place where she also gets vacations. She just happen to send an e-mail asking if I would like to hire her.

Wow, interesting timing!