Overprivileged

[ailbhe]

So the house is very very tidy, because we are of the overprivileged few who have somoene else come in once a week and vacuum, wash floors, and dust, polish, clean paintwork etc etc etc. I don't want to hear about how overprivileged that makes me, I feel more than guilty enough already.

I have also done a load of laundry and am about ready to eat; the weather continues charming and this morning I will study in the garden.

No, really, I will. I wore shorts especially for the weather.

Comments

[liadnan]

Me, I don't think it makes you overprivileged. But then I'm a free market liberal...

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Overpriviliged ptui. We always had a housekeeper when I was a kid, and I fully intend to get one here too, just as soon as it's possible.

[nallac.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would feel absolutely no guilt at all about paying someone else to to stuff I don't want to do, especially when they can do the job a lot better than me.
The only reason I don't have a cleaning lady is that I have simply not bothered to get around to arranging one.

[nallac.livejournal.com]

Daft isn't it?
I just sat down and made a quick calculation. Assuming the cleaner is paid about a fiver an hour (minimum wage is about 3.80, I think), with the amount of time I spend not actually cleaning, and how much I cost per hour, I could have a cleaner spend the entire day tidying up my small, 1 bed flat, and still come out with a profit.
Of course, it does mane I would have to actually do something.

[nallac.livejournal.com]

>>"...and still come out with a profit."
>What a great money-making scheme! Heh.

[nallac.livejournal.com]

[mumble - hit the wrong button]
>>"...and still come out with a profit."
>What a great money-making scheme! Heh.

It's only a notional profit. Deduct the cost of the cleaner from how much I would earn by working, instead of tidying. Anything left is profit.

[ailbhe]

I don't think it's a gender thing. I think I was brought up to believe firmly in "to each according ot his need, form each according to is ability", and I set "my ability" at waaaay beyond what I can actually sustain. Failing to to everything I am physically able to do - even if doing it would be physically damaging - makes me guilty.

Of course, I have good days when this doesn't apply.

[nallac.livejournal.com]

If it was a case of "from each, according to ability", I could probably make a decent case for me spending my entire life working on computers, with someone else doing the washing, cooking, laundry, etc.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't see having someone come in once a week as a mark of great privledge -- we did that growing up.

And I've met the very, very wealthy, and liked several of them. There is a qualitative difference between having someone come in once a week, and having a full-time staff of several people, some of whom live at the house.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Privileged, certainly - just as anyone reading this is (literacy yadda yadda access to the Web yadda yadda). The free-market argument, frankly, would be easier to stomach if the dice weren't so ridiculously loaded from the word go.

But over-? I'm not so sure. As long as you're paying a decent wage to this person, it's simply (OK, not simply - this isn't simple) an example of the division of labour.

Your consciousness that it is a privilege presumably ensures that you treat this person with the respect and consideration due to any employee, rather than, say, making judgements or assumptions based on the relative social status of the work you each do. (Note gender-neutral language in previous sentence - out of interest, is this a he-cleaner or a she-cleaner?)

Oh, and read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, if you haven't yet. Does anyone know if the book on similar issues in Britain is out yet? (My memory is whispering "Julie Burchill", but it could be talking bollox.)

[ailbhe]

I don't currently work; I came -><- this close to having a nervous breakdown and am now recovering and planning the wedding and studying, but not working. The cleaners are she-cleaners; they work in teams and get what I think is well-paid for the skill level, and badly paid for the yuk-level. I don't treat them with any level of anything, as I feel so guilty about the whole affair that I tend to avoid interacting with them at all. That's possibly very rude; I'm not sure.

I'd feel better about a he-cleaner, I think. Interesting.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

I don't currently work; I came -><- this close to having a nervous breakdown and am now recovering and planning the wedding and studying, but not working

Not working for a salary, perhaps, but from your entries over the past while, you don't appear to be exactly idle!

Me, I intend to investigate the option of a cleaner as soon as the house is in a state where it could conceivably be cleaned by someone who didn't have a stake in its contents (*breaks into a chorus of the More Storage Space Song*)...

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Not "over-", IMAO. *Revel* in your cleaniness. For the rest of us. Please.

[ailbhe]

Oh, I do!

But I feel guilty about it at the same time.

What I really revel in, guilt-free, is the cup of tea I get brought every morning before I get out of bed. Regardless of how well or badly made the tea is.

[artela.livejournal.com]

At some point in my life I aim to have "someone who does"... that point is fast approaching. The only thing, for me, would be resisting the urge to make sure everything was clean before they came to do exactly that :-)

Cleaning for the cleaners

[ailbhe]

Yes, not doing that is hard. Thankfully, ours need to have the flat surfaces cleared, so I can tidy up compulsively before they come and then I have to just leave, once the place is cleared enough to be polished, vacuumed, etc. I can't bear sitting around while they do it.

But I do feel that I'm letting the proletariat down.