Why Most Maids / Cleaners Do Not Speak English??!!

In my opinion all Cleaning Company Owners / Managers would love to have all employees who speak English fluently. This is an issue that at Tremendous Maid / Boston’s Best Commercial Cleaning we discuss on a very frequent basis.

I guess the question for you to consider is: If the service is reliable and trustworthy, is having cleaners that don’t speak English a deal breaker?

The fact is that many employees of a cleaning service, either residential or commercial, are not fluent in English. Most janitorial cleaners are immigrants that come to the USA in search of opportunities for their families.

My Personal Take on This:

rosa-tejeda
Rosa Tejeda~ Amazing Woman & Entrepreneur

My mother Rosa came in the mid 1990’s in search of opportunities so her children could get an American education. My mother worked 2 and 3 jobs at time as a hotel maid and never had time to study English.

Deep down this is the #1 reason why I wanted to open a cleaning company in the Boston area. For the longest time I felt embarrassed to tell my Cornell University’s friends that my mom was a cleaner. I realized that the only reason why she was a maid was because she couldn’t speak English to work a better job. And she worked 2 and 3 jobs so she could give us the things that we never had back in the Dominican Republic. My mother didn’t speak English but she has always been very strong and an intelligent woman.

About 2 months ago we had a client very upset with the maids because they didn’t speak English –this client yelled at the maids and our office staff. When I got involved in this situation, I communicated that this behavior is not acceptable in our company and that we wont be able to provide service any longer. Even though I was calmed throughout the conversations, I felt that fire was coming out of my ears! With so many Cleaning Companies in the Boston Market – why offend others just to get an ego booster when you can simply cancel your service and move on?!

Maids are very hard to find especially because cleaning is very physical work. At Tremendous Maid we demand all our team to provide a better cleaning experience than many other companies in the area, which makes it even harder to attract English-speaking applicants. Within the last two months, we had new hires showed up for the first day orientation and never show up for the second day. Others make it the first week or so and by the end of the month provide their resignation.

This is the reason why most of the maids in our team are non-English speakers; because they have a need to support families back home so they have to work harder and longer than others who could easily find other type of work if they speak English. Many of these people are accustomed to hard work and are, in fact, very good workers who don’t flinch at rolling their sleeves up and getting the work done.

The Up Side to Non-English Speakers

People who have recently come to the United States for a better life often understand that hard work is the key to success in this land of opportunity and are more than willing to put forth the effort necessary to succeed.

Most are honest, dependable, trustworthy and motivated to perform their job well, whatever it may be. Many work two or even three of these lower paying jobs in order to pay their bills and send money home to family in another country.

We want to work with people who need to work because they get it! And our vision at Tremendous Maid / Boston’s Best Commercial Cleaning is to:

To become the leading residential & commercial cleaning company by continually developing systems and programs that provide superior services for our clients and employees. TM / BBCC will become the preferred company for current and prospective team members who seek opportunities for growth and development to achieve the American Dream.

If you have special instructions for a cleaning job and are afraid you won’t be able to communicate the details to a cleaner whose English isn’t quite up to par, just call our office at 617-553-1393 and convey your request to the office assistant in charge who will then pass the message along to the cleaner who is to do the work.

Otherwise, whether or not a cleaner is able to speak English fluently just really isn’t a problem.

If your cleaning service is sending employees who are efficient, pleasant and doing a good job all around, why is English required?

Think about it: I’ve been and worked in major luxury hotels and the # of maids who don’t speak English is significant yet they are 5 star hotels! How many times have I been to ridiculously priced organic super markets (and I think you know who I am referring to here) and the customer service staff replenish the shelves cannot say 2 words in English?

Just something to consider.

Cheers!

Victoria

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