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“What? No male house cleaners? As in no men cleaning house or male maids? How am I supposed to grow my cleaning company if I can’t include a male house cleaner?”
Today on Ask a House Cleaner we look at the politically incorrect request “no male house cleaners.”
Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru says male house cleaners are aces at speed cleaning. They have excellent cleaning skills and many can clean circles around women. And she gives pro cleaning tips and cleaning advice to make it work.
Today’s sponsors are Savvy Cleaner (maid service training.) HouseCleaning360 (Find a cleaning service right for you.) Savvy Perks (Employee benefits for small business owners.) And My Cleaning Connection (a cleaning resource hub.)
Listen: WHAT? No Male House Cleaners?
Watch: WHAT? No Male House Cleaners?
Hey 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.
Question: Please No Male House Cleaners. WHAT?
“No male house cleaners. We only want females.” You’ve heard this before, right? We’re going to talk about that today. What do you do?
“Hi, Angela. I have a client who is refusing to have a male cleaner to do her house. I’ve also had this from two other customers. Where do I stand on that, as obviously it’s politically correct, but they request only a female? I don’t know what to say to the male cleaner. He feels like he’s not good enough. I have told him the actual reason why. How do I stand from a company point of view on this? Thank you.”
All Male House Cleaners or Just This One?
You’re right. It is politically incorrect (and somewhat prejudice) to not want a male house cleaner. Now, we have to go back and ask a couple of questions about that. Is it this particular man or is it all men in general?
Because there are women who’ve had some bad experiences with men. And they don’t want a man inside their house, for whatever reason. They don’t feel safe, it makes them uncomfortable, whatever. And we have to honor that because these are our customers.
Male House Cleaners Go Against Stereotype
It would be akin to female roofing houses. Now, there’s nothing to say a woman can’t roof houses, but that’s not the traditional, normal stereotype. And so, if you saw a woman on a house, it might make you uncomfortable, like “hey, I don’t want her falling off.”
Your mind starts thinking of things like “she’s in childbearing years. And if she falls off the roof of my house, and she breaks her pelvis or something, then she’ll never be able to have kids.”
There are a lot of weird reasons that we don’t understand why a woman may not want a man in her house, and it might just be a particular man.
Male House Cleaners May Remind Us of Our Worst Fear
Your client may not like your male house cleaner for unknown reasons.
Maybe he reminds her of her ex. Or maybe he reminds her of her brother, who caused lots of chaos and tormented her as a child. I don’t know.
I do know that there’s a real thing about meeting somebody and not connecting with that person. And if you don’t connect with that person, you do have issues.
I Met a Woman I didn’t Like – No, I Hated Her
I remember one time I went to hire a woman, and I didn’t like her. It’s strange. I don’t know why I didn’t like her, because she had nothing wrong to me, I just met her. But I didn’t like her.
There was just this overwhelming sensation that I hated her.
I went through the interview process, and at the end, I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t hire you.”
And she said, “You don’t like me, do you?”
I said, “I don’t, and I don’t trust you, and I don’t know why. I’m being totally honest and open here. I don’t know why. I don’t know where it’s coming from. You have done nothing wrong to me.
You’re professional, you’re qualified. There are all these reasons why you would be a perfect candidate for this job. but I cannot work with you, and I don’t know why.”
You Can’t Ignore Your Gut Instincts
The only excuse I had was this: “At the end of the day, you go home to your life or whatever after you get the job. And I have to live with myself and my gut instincts. And my gut instincts say we are not a good fit for each other, and I have no idea why.”
She was like, “Oh my goodness, I appreciate the honesty.” And we had a good laugh over it, and I sent her on her way. And to this day, I cannot explain why I had that feeling, but I knew I could not work with her. Now, that’s only ever happened once in all the people that I’ve met and all the people that I’ve interviewed. So, it might just be this particular man is not connecting with her.
If it’s All Male House Cleaners – We Have a Different Issue
But now, if it’s all men, then we have to look at the conversation a little bit differently. Because we don’t want your employees to feel inferior. Or that they’re not good enough to go clean a customer’s house.
I don’t want to stereotype, but in my experience, the men that we have as house cleaners far outperform the women on so many occasions. They don’t have PMS for the most part. Sometimes they are moody but not for the most part.
They don’t get emotionally attached to items and objects, and so as they clean, it’s like laser focus. Men go in, they get the job done, they get out again. They work on time, they’re efficient, they’re fast, they’re consistent. And they’re thorough, they’re and on task.
And so, I love hiring male house cleaners, because the work and the productivity are through the roof.
Not Hiring Male House Cleaners is Politically Incorrect
There are a variety of different reasons why people won’t work with some particular person.
Politically incorrect reasons include religion or gender. Or background, upbringing or ethnicity. So, you might ask the client and say, “Is it this particular man or is it all men in general?”
And then let her know what your options are. “Right now, my options are only men. I only have this one man with availability to come to your house.
“Do you want me to put you on a waiting list and I’ll call you when I hire another female who’s able to come?”
If You Staff Male House Cleaners – You Have to Address it
Or you might just say, “Then we’re not a good fit for each other,” and you might move on and recommend somebody else that can come clean her house.
It’s a weird situation, but you do have to address it because it’s real. There are a lot of females who have had bad experiences with men. And they don’t want a man in their house, for whatever reason.
And so, I don’t want to go into all the reasons why you can kind of imagine. But there are some bad experiences that will prevent a woman from having a man come clean her house.
Hopefully, this is something you can work through – because male house cleaners are amazing.
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Resources For This Episode
How to Start Your Own House Cleaning Company: Go from startup to payday in one week – https://amzn.to/2K7ecUa
Your House Cleaning Business, A Blueprint For Success – https://amzn.to/2qVYgv1
How to Start a Cleaning Business: Your Guide to Generating $2,000+ Income in 30 Days or Less – https://amzn.to/2KabUDB
How to Start, Run and Grow a Successful Residential & Commercial Cleaning Business – https://amzn.to/2HmlRMy
Clean and Grow Rich: How To Start and Operate Your Own Profitable Cleaning Business – https://amzn.to/2Far08A
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