Time To Make A Clean Break

(I work at a law office from 8-5 during the weekdays as the receptionist, meaning I greet people and offer them drinks while they wait for their appointments. During the weekends, we have a cleaner come in who has a major attitude problem. I notice that she doesn’t really clean down the coffee machines, which is part of her job, so I leave a message requesting she do so since we have twenty clients coming in on Monday alone, and I need to have all of them ready come 8 o’clock. Monday morning I come in to work to find all the coffee pots have disappeared, and that the grounds have been smeared into the water receptacles. At 8:10, we have our first set of clients come in, and I’m still trying to prepare coffee.)

Me: “Good morning. Please have a seat. I’m afraid we’re out of coffee, but I have some sodas or water if you prefer that.”

Boss: *overhearing me and pulling me to the side* “We’re out of coffee? We just stocked some. What happened?”

Me: “[Cleaner] decided that my note was obviously rude. She hid the coffee pots on the highest shelf in the paper closet, she smeared old coffee grounds inside the water receptacles, and I found a nice, nasty deposit of it on top of the letter I left her on Friday.”

Boss: “Why did you even leave her a note?”

Me: “Because I knew we were going to be busy today. Besides, she never really cleans anyway. I still have a full bag of trash at my desk that I still haven’t emptied.”

Boss: “Right. Go fix the coffee pots; I’ll have [Coworker] take the front desk.”

(Two hours later, in comes our cleaning lady looking furious.)

Cleaning Lady: “Why did you tell [Boss] I was throwing garbage all around the kitchen?”

Me: “I never said that.”

Cleaning Lady: “What did you say?”

Me: “That you hid the coffee pots on me and threw grounds in the water receptacles, even though you knew that we had 20 clients coming in today.”

Cleaning Lady: “I didn’t do that.”

Me: “So, you’re saying that you didn’t come in to clean on Saturday?”

Cleaning Lady: “NO! That must have been my neighbor. She’s been coming to clean for me sometimes.”

Me: “Uh huh… You gave your neighbor a key to a law office without telling [Boss] about this?”

Cleaning Lady: “It’s not like she would steal anything!”

(I reported it to the boss, and it turned out the neighbor HAD been stealing things, such as petty cash and an expensive camera that the boss used to take pictures for claim purposes. We were able to take on a different cleaning person who is far more professional and willingly sets the coffee pots up on Sunday for us when she knows we’ll have a busy Monday.)