Hi there, I'm Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question,
and I get to help you find an answer.
Today's question comes from a homeowner who has hired the woman that owns
the house cleaning company.
So the woman that actually shows up to her house to clean is the owner of the company.
And she wants to know, I know in some cultures, it's not considered appropriate to give a
tip to the owner of the company.
So should I not give this woman who cleans my house a tip?
Or should I give her a tip?
That's the question.
This is an awesome question because there are cultural differences where some places
you do leave tips, and some places you don't.
I'm going to step on a limb and I'm going to give you a really bold, brassy answer where
you cannot go wrong.
The woman that is cleaning your house works for a living.
She's trying to collect money to pay her bills.
That's just the root of and the bottom of what's going on.
She's trying to earn money to pay her bills.
So if you give her extra money, I promise she will not be offended.
She will not say "no, no, don't give me tips, I'm the owner of the company, that's inappropriate."
She's there to earn money.
You want to give her an extra twenty-five or fifty bucks.
God bless you.
It's not going to be weird and it's not going to be inappropriate.
In fact, I do recommend that if you like the service you're getting, that you
reward that behavior.
We know in psychology 101 the behavior that you reward and pay attention to is the behavior
that gets repeated.
There's a really twisted version of that but here's how it works.
In our society, when people get sick, we call them up on the phone and we say, "Oh Jenny,
I'm so sorry that you got sick.
I'm praying for you.
I hope that you feel better."
All these things.
Then if Jenny gets really ill and she has to go to the hospital,
we take time out of our schedule.
"Oh, I must go see Jenny at the hospital."
We don't go see Jenny when she's well.
But we pay attention to her being sick.
We go to the hospital, we visit Jenny, and let's say that she's deathly ill.
So now we're going to take some flowers, we're going to take some flowers and maybe a little
teddy bear to cheer her up.
And we'll even stop by the gift shop and buy a "get well" card.
So now, she's got balloons, and flowers, and a teddy bear and a get well card.
That say "Oh, we are sorry that you are sick."
And do you know what you've done?
You've just given Jenny all this amazing attention.
And accolades for being ill.
And there's nothing, I mean she gets nothing for being well.
So the next time she wants to feel needed and appreciated and important, what happens
is she is going to get sick.
And then we are obligated to go through all these rituals and routines all over again.
Because we paid attention to that behavior.
So instead of paying attention to, and it's not bad behavior, it's just unfortunate that
our society places so much value on being sick and ill and surgeries and all these things.
That it benefits people even at an unconscious level to become sick and ill
and all these things.
Just so they can feel valued as a person.
Right?
Twisted.
Totally twisted.
So pay attention to the behavior you want repeated.
If your house cleaner screws up something, don't pay attention to that.
Because guess what?
If they want to get even with you.
"Oh, I'll show you!"
They might try to improve that, but chances are they are going to do more of it.
It's like nagging at your spouse.
Why didn't you do this?
Why didn't you do that?
And you'll find yourself constantly nagging because there's no inspiration in that.
If you want to inspire them, catch people doing things right.
If your house cleaner does something right, and you pay attention to that.
You give them a tip, you encourage them you say "Oh my goodness, when I came in today
my kitchen looked amazing."
You don't have to say "My bathroom looked like crap, and you skipped a few things."
What happens is they're like "Wow, I did a really great job in the kitchen, I'm going to try
harder next time on the bathroom.
I want her to say that about the bathroom too."
It's like when you start loosing weight.
And you go to school or you go to work or whereever you go and people are like "WOW.
Are you losing weight?
You look amazing."
And you're like "yeah, I guess I am.
Thanks for noticing."
And now it comes time for lunch and you're like "Wait a second,
I'm not going to eat that.
I mean, you know people are noticing.
They're thinking that I'm looking pretty good right now,
I should probably continue that on."
So, at an unconscious level, we repeat the behaviors that we pay attention to.
So, if, you want more good house cleaning, pay attention to that.
Yes, give your house cleaning lady a tip.
If you're broke and you don't have the money, and you're scraping by to try to come up with
enough money just to get your house cleaned, you can leave her a rating and review.
And I encourage everybody to do this.
If you have a house cleaner, get on yelp.
Give them a five-star rating.
And let everybody know "I'm so pleased."
Get on Nextdoor (https://Nextdoor.com) leave a rating for your house cleaner.
Get on MyNeighborhood.com leave a rating and review for your house cleaner.
If you have a neighborhood Facebook page.
I know that my neighborhood has a Facebook page that is exclusive for my neighborhood.
Get on the and say "By the way, I got Charice coming over to clean my house on Tuesdays.
She's out of this world.
She's outstanding, she's amazing.
And when you leave that, guess what?
It not only gets back to Charice, but she gets a lot more business as a result of it.
So, another way to tip your house cleaner is to leave a rating and review.
And to send referrals.
Literally, go out and say "Hey listen, my next-door neighbor and I were talking last night, and
I told her about you, and I would love for you to go clean her house
do you have any openings?"
And if that house cleaner doesn't have any openings then what you can do is get the next-door
neighbor on a waiting list.
So that if there are any openings, or someone moves that they are able to
get in on that schedule.
That is a way that you can tip your house cleaner.
So, should you tip your house cleaner?
Yes, you should.
You should.
You should pay attention to everything that your house cleaner does correctly.
Because you want more of that.
And so, it sounds really silly, but house cleaners are human.
A lot of them live alone.
Some of them have small children.
Some of them are in relationships that are not very healthy or encouraging.
And so, when they come to your house, if you're the person that gives them Atta boy's and
encouragement "hey this looks amazing."
They are going to trip over themselves, and they are going to go out of their way to try
to do more of that.
And so, if you have a chance, I mean it's entirely up to you, but if you have a chance,
and you want to tip your house cleaner - absolutely.
If she's the owner of the company and that's inappropriate - big whoop.
So, you broke a part of culture, but you know what?
She feels appreciated and she's going to go home even if it's a little bit of extra money
and she can say "you know what?
I'm going to go have my nails done.
Or I'm going to buy this new shirt for myself.
I'm going to do something that's nice for myself with that little bit of extra money
that she doesn't have to then turn around and use to pay the bills.
Maybe she still needs it to pay bills, but guess what?
She looks at you now as a different type of customer.
You're now a customer who appreciates her.
And when you are a customer who appreciates your house cleaner, suddenly you just went
into a whole new level.
So that's my tip for today.
If you found this tip helpful, please pass it along to a friend.
And until I see you again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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