The "Help" ...

I've had this housekeeper for over two years, and I really REALLY like her.

She's dependable, hard working, cute as can be, a mom to two sons who sound like angels, and she allows their father to live with them because ... I'm not sure why, but because her boys need their father, I presume. But now that her oldest son has graduated high school, she's decided to pull the plug, live on her own with her youngest son, and set boundaries for herself. I've offered her moving boxes, and "if you need some furniture, I have extra stuff, Cyndi!"

I thought we had a good rapport.

So, two Thursdays ago - June 27 - Cyndi, our housekeeper blew in like a bat out of hell at her 9 am start time, hauled in her cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaner and went right to work in Judy's room.

What was unusual was we usually chatted for 10-20 minutes about her last two weeks, my last two weeks, how things were going.

Not this day.

She clinked and clanked her way through Judy's room. Then our powder room, the foyer, the dining room, and bam, deposited her supplies in front of my room (on the opposite side of the first floor). What normally takes her about an hour was less than 30 minutes.

I noticed that she was wearing different braces on both her wrists - she has carpel tunnel issues (for which months ago I gave her a pair of large rubber gloves that she could wear over her braces) - I asked if the house was cool enough "It's kinda warm" so I lowered the temp on the AC.

"Is everything okay?" I asked. "Have you found a place to move to? How did George's grades turn out?" (George is her youngest son. I knew he had been struggling in math and she was worried about his grades at the end of the school year. She then told me about an appointment with counseling and that they had evaluated his skills ... brought in the dozen pages of reports/paperwork for me to read). We discussed his upcoming school year and I made suggestions how he could be more successful.

The last time she cleaned for me was the last day of school. "I need to leave a little early" she told me the previous time she was here, so she could pick up her son from school. "Not a problem. Thanks for letting me know." (As it so happened, she arranged for her older son to pick up his brother, but I still let her go early.)

Back to June 27.

As per our "normal" schedule, I did the laundry - Judy's sheets and towels, then mine. When Judy's were done, Cyndi would make Judy's bed and finish her bathroom setup; I would finish the laundry around 12:30 or so, and put my clean linens out.

At 11:50, Cyndi was "finished." Laundry was not finished.

Our original "verbal contract" was six hours, $15 an hour.  Arrive at 9 am, leave by 3 pm. Most days she was finished before 2 - not problem. Always asked if I needed her to do anything else, and sometimes I did, but mostly not.

Since January 2019, she's mostly been done by 1:30, which was fine. Cyndi was worth the money and I welcomed the extra downtime.

But on this day, Cyndi clearly had a different agenda when she arrived, and rather than discuss it with me, she blew into my house like a tank. I knew immediately something was "wrong" - and about every 20 minutes or so, I opened the window of discussion, but she didn't bite.

I wrote her check for the $90 (for six hours @ $15 per), but before she left, I asked her to talk to me. "We need to have a conversation about this," I said.

"I've picked up four more houses to clean," she said. "I don't have time to talk - I have another house to clean and I need to be there by 12:30."

I get it. She has made up her mind to be independent from her husband and she needs more money. But ...

As an employer, am I wrong for wondering what is her expectation and didn't she need to discuss it with me before she changed her schedule without so much as a conversation about it?

She's worth EVERY PENNY. But why wouldn't she talk to me about it?