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What's a "cleaning lady" or a "gardner" in this context? Someone who runs a cleaning or landscaping business and maintains private homes may be quite well off,
by cookiecaper 10y ago
What's a "cleaning lady" or a "gardner" in this context? Someone who runs a cleaning or landscaping business and maintains private homes may be quite well off, but someone who is a hotel maid or a janitor probably isn't.
There's a large camp that claims dedicated performance of simple tasks, like cleaning, is no longer sufficient to make a decent living in post-industrial America, so anecdotal counterpoints to that are of interest.
- Steeeve 10y agoThe lady who cleans the offices at my work drives a nicer car than I do (software engineer). Dedicated worker, always friendly. This is in Palo Alto. I've been astounded at the cost of certain things in the area. I regularly see people looking for child-care at $35+/hour, whereas it paid $20-25 at the very high end for multiple children and a highly qualified person in my area in southern california. Getting a good plumber or handyman to come by for less than a small fortune is seemingly impossible unless it's a personal referral. I think that if your home base is taken care of (i.e. you have owned for a while or managed to rent from someone who doesn't raise the rent by 10% every year) it's possible to get by with dual non-degreed employment. Getting ahead on the other hand - saving up for a home and padding other savings AND paying escalating rent at the same time while not living frugally with extreme measures is very tough for people in the highest paying job sectors.
- gumby 10y agoTrue, my gardener has a guy that works with him when there's a lot to do. The cleaning lady is just a cleaning lady. I had to I-9 them and have them on a payroll system. FWIW both are US citizens.