house cleaner

cleaner

housekeeper

préposé à l'entretien ménager

surveillant du nettoyage

Merry Maids

You show up at the office in the morning around 8, and you stay until they tell you to. You are not done your last day until the last clean is finished, and then they may send you to help. very hard to schedule appointments around. Some days are great and easy with good payroll, and some are all underbid houses and they are long and unrealistic. Depends how much management likes you on what you're dealt and how much you make. You make management angry for any reason (ie, booking time off, they just generally dont like you, being sick etc) and you're screwed. I was sick and had many doctors saying I could not work and excusing me and then I got let go for other reasons they were saying that were so out of left field for me, i didnt even know where they came from. no severance pay, no notice, nothing. they just fire you.
you work 10 or 11 hours in a day and they dont pay you overtime for that day because you're somehow only at "39 hours for the week, you havent gone overtime for the week." when you track your hours you see they are shorting you.

The co-workers were awesome (and most warned me that the situation I just mentioned is how they handle things, or they cut your hours to make you want to quit so they do not have to give you severance) and I enjoyed working with ALL of them. Awesome girls who unfortunately are stuck in a dead end job for a multitude of reasons. I even generally like the office staff as people but it is hard to get past the lack of empathy from them. They have nice cars and nice houses and dont understand what its like to barely be able to pay car insurance on your old beater of a car much less to fix anything on it.

I was quite disappointed by the lack of car in terms of the customer. You do not care about the customer, you only care about making money. You get punished if a customer cannot afford the services anymore. No more bonus for you because they cant afford it. But "we want to make them want their houses cleaned more than they want cable or internet." YEAH RIGHT! Some of these customers were SOOOO overpaying and the employees fill out forms upon forms and the office does nothing because they do not want to loose money. and same goes for others, they were underpaying and the office does nothing because they do not want to lose the customer.

Hardest part of the job is justifying why you are doing the job. Why are you cleaning feces and urine for barely above minimum wage?

Most enjoyable part of the job? Going home at the end of the day.

Granted... a lot of the customers are amazing people and seeing them happy was a huge bonus. But on the other hand, is it worth being treated like scum by some of the other customers and even the staff? I think not.

I would never work at merry maids again. Nor would I ever recommend it to anyone. Unless it is your absolute LAST resort and youre willing to be a door mat so you can actually keep your job.

This is a cleaning job so if you're looking for something as fulfilling as reading to sick kids then you're barking up the wrong tree. BUT, there are some major benefits to this job.

Management:
They are SUPER friendly, have clear expectations, are willing to help and will back you up if you need it. I have never felt like I would get in trouble for doing my job or for things happening that were out of my control. Personally, I have never been shown anything but kindness and compassion from the team at Merry Maids.

The Work:
It's hard. Don't come here thinking it's gonna be an easy ride, you gotta work for it. It's physical and your back will hurt. But at the end of the day your work is done and you leave it behind when you go home. There are no late nights worrying about things you have to get done the next day or deadlines to meet by the end of the week. It's all about instant gratification and taking home that cheque.

The Pay:
Is decent. There are opportunities to increase your earnings after a 3 month probationary period and you can earn more on certain jobs if you're fast and efficient. The benefits are great and something that not a lot of these types of jobs offer; extended medical, dental and vision for you and your family. So if you're trying to get yourself on your feet then it is a great way to do that. Also, you get overtime after 4pm and decent reimbursement for gas mileage.

The Hours:
Personally I love starting earlier and finishing earlier. Some days, particularly in the summer, I can get off as early 1 or 2 but still have worked 6 or 7 hours. Longer days are tough when you have to start at 7:30am and don't get home until close to 5pm, but the paycheck from those days is good so it balances out. 

Bottom Line:
The people are great, the work is tough, and the pay is decent. Is it something I want to do for the rest of my life? Definitely not. But it's a job that I needed at a time in my life when I had overwhelming responsibilities and chaos in my personal life but still needed to bring home the bacon and take care of business. If you want a job that pays the bills but doesn't come with a bunch of drama or stressful late nights then this is a great gig. Ultimately, it is what you make of it. Keep your head down and get your work done and you won't have any complaints.

your days will be jam packed more often than not. they will also try to make you stay late to finish houses if you don’t get them done by 5. typical day was 3-4 houses, when i started you had the option of working in a team (for a flat hourly rate) or solo (commission based w/ min wage for travel time). by the time i left they were only training for solos (its a lot of work, i was seeing 4 or even 5 houses a day). it’s stressful because the schedules didn’t match the amount of time in a day, sometimes i would get 8-9 hours worth of clean times (not accounting for any breaks or a lunch). they would even ask girls to not take a lunch. often felt like there was no time to breathe between houses. they do pay for mileage however it’s not up to the standard set by the government. 40 cents a KM, im not even sure how they get away with this, government set rate is between 60-70. also, they don’t just service KW and Guelph. they will send girls to Brantford, Paris, Rockwood, Puslinch, ect.  Some days i would be driving 40-60 minutes to get to a house. at that rate it’s NOT worth what they are paying for mileage. If you can work fast paced, and are fine with physical work you can make a decent amount of money as a solo. keep ur head down, do ur job, go home. the faster you get done the earlier you can leave (if they don’t send you to help or add houses). if you’re a decent cleaner, management will treat you well. but they will also take their bad moods out on you. once you get into it you’ll see how quantity is pushed ahead of quality. they would rather get as many houses done as possible instead of letting us take our time. they push quality and you will get spoken to (not very nicely) if your quality is an issue, but you can’t do a fantastic job when you don’t have enough time in a house. overall don’t recommend unless it’s a placeholder job, can make good money quick but don’t stay longer than a year. 

The job work/life balance is good as it’s generally daytime hours from Monday to Friday. Salary sucks because it’s not an hourly wage. You get paid hourly when in the houses, but travel time is not paid. Just your kilometers which do not add up at all because the place is so unorganized and all over the place that you’re wasting your gas driving roughly half an hour between each house. Some locations are an hour outside of London. Your hourly wage and gas mileage aren’t separated so everything is taxed, and you do not get a pay stub and aren’t provided a way to look at pay. You won’t see your hours and the boss can’t tell you your hours worked if you ask. Your job security is awesome if you can last because people drop like flies as working here is not worth the stress for minimum wage and wear and tear on your vehicle. Management doesn’t know how to do their job, and the entire establishment is messy and unorganized. For a legitimate business, there is no structure whatsoever. As for the people that work there, they are a genuinely nice batch of ladies to work with. Just feel sorry for them because they all would express all of what I said, they just aren’t in the right circumstance to find something else. If you aren’t independent and confident in that or comfortable working alone do not apply as you are mainly working and driving from house to house on your own. The training is of very minimum so if you aren’t experienced you will still be thrown into the fire by yourself within your first week. I have seen this with at least five different girls. As for the cleaning aspect, with your customers if you’re lucky enough to have regulars you are scheduled to clean..it is very rewarding! But as for the rest, it is not worth the stress. Your mental health will detiriarate fast.

I worked at merry maids for a few months and at first it was great. I loved cleaning and all the customers management was so kind and helpful. The pay was great too. After I had been there for a few months the pay started to get less and less but we were cleaning more houses than before. More than once they messed up my pay one time they paid someone else who didn't even work that day for my cleaning. The second time they somehow forgot to put almost $200  on my pay but they paid my partner the right amount. When I pointed it out they were mad. They have a rule that if you get tips from the customers you have to hand it in then they will return it to you. They rarely give it back and if you ask they pretend they don't know what your talking about. They say you work 9-5pm but you have to be there for 8am and they make you work up to 630pm some days. If you have an appointment during the day they get mad and send you out to clean all day anyways. They give you your houses in the mornings and you could have 4-6 houses or a couple specials. They will have it so you are working till 430-5pm then on your way to the office give you another house and have you out till 6pm. The management started to get more rude as time went by and all they care about is the money they get from customers. They over charge and now they have a rule that if your cleaning an apartment your time starts when you park the car so the customer is paying for an hour and only getting 40 minutes of cleaning and getting ripped off. They also make you clean rat poo with no hand face or foot protection and don't care.

Working at Merry maids was stressful, and had very high expectations. Yet, had double standards. Some, would be late everyday, miss a day atleast a week, and never really hear anything. I would never miss a day, and when I’d need to take a sick day to rest, it was always “are you sure? This is going to make it difficult for me” and a lot of back talking and gossiping between employees and my MANAGER which should not happen. The work place is always mostly just women. And it has obviously a very highschool-esque vibe, lots of gossip, groups, and drama. I kept to my self but the high workload and lack of compassion for their employees really made me understand the compliments and so called advances in the company are only to benefit them. When I tried to give my two weeks notice, I was immediately taken off the schedule for the jext 2 weeks, meaning I was out pay for that time. I was told how much they cared about me, and I was apart of a family, but I don’t think that is what is happening. 
Also, had to ask for my benefits after 6 months, when I feel the management should have some responsibility to begin the process with the employees when they say benefits will come into effect. I should not have to beg for them. I was there for a year, and ended up never receiving them. 

I worked for Merry Maids in Trenton for a few months this summer.   When I was hired things were a little disorganized and a contract has been lost which started me out with very little hours.  The owner is a very nice man and asked me to stay with Merry Maids as he knew my work ethic and that I was a hard working individual.
However, my immediate manager in Trenton was a nightmare to work for.  She would show up at every clean I was doing (which was fine) but it felt more like it was to berate and belittle me as she showed me how she wanted things done over and over.  She spoke down to me like I was a young child and my last straw was when she made a comment about me wanting to keep my job because I had forgotten to carry a step stool in from my car one day.  for $14/hour it was just not worth the harassment!
  Overall I did enjoy cleaning and meeting new clients.  Really liked the other manager as well as the owners who were so nice!  I just feel they have the wrong person as a Trenton Manager.  Working under her became stressful and it was unnecessary.
  I am writing this review now because I'm not sure what was done to rectify the situation when I left but I feel like there was no protection in place for me as a hard working employee who was feeling harassed to the point of leaving.

Merry Maids has made a major impact on my life in all aspects. Mentally, physically, emotionally and financially Merry Maids has improved not only my personal well being but the well being of my family as well. With such an amazing team overall that makes you feel like family, I come home a much happier person. There are amazing incentives and growth opportunities within the company that I have not been able to see or achieve within my past job experiences. 

Like every workplace there will always be the ups and downs but with such wonderful co-workers and management, we all work together as a team to help each other get through all the little bumps in the road.

In all honesty I can say I do wake up everyday and actually do look forward to come into work and look forward to seeing all the friendly faces I work with on a daily basis. I love all my co-workers and management with all my heart and couldn't ask for a better place to call my second home.

Every day, except weekends, I  clean some houses. I work fulltime but there are some people who are working part time. Sometimes, I work solo but some times, I work with 1 or 2 of my colleagues but my earnings are the same because when we work in a group we clean more houses. The company is popular and a branch of a world-class company, so it has many customers . Here, I  learnt team working.
The management of the company is amazing and they treat us fairly. I suppose the culture of the Merry Maids of Ottawa west is doing perfect job for the customers so, the hardest part of the job for me is when the manager comes to check my work and see if every thing is okay. The sweetest part is when the manager say "well done" or the customer is happy with my work.       

Very high expectations - they expect you to clean extremely fast (which leads to lower quality cleaning) and keep to your schedule no matter what, while also expecting you to stay late to finish cleans without warning. Despite unreasonable timelines you are expected to hand scrub grout and hand mop floors. Compensation didn't match what was advertised, and was never explained in detail. Management was passive aggressive, wasn't supportive and had a lack of compassion for employees in training. Management played favourites and had double standards between employees. The workplace culture often felt immature with people talking behind your back and placing blame. Very stressful work environment considering you are only doing residential cleaning. The only upside was talking with customers and seeing neat houses.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
House cleaner 53 salaries reported	$19.96 per hour
Cleaner 15 salaries reported	$18.13 per hour
Housekeeper 4 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Préposé à l'entretien ménager 3 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Surveillant du nettoyage 2 salaries reported	$27.50 per hour

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