Cleaning Duties

9.56 AM

The maid told Penny that her first job would be cleaning the bathrooms. First she showed Penny to the cupboard where all the cleaning equipment was kept and pointed to the oldest, tattiest bucket there "That is your bucket." She told her "Only ever use any of the other buckets if the job genuinely requires a better bucket. If I ever catch you using one of the other buckets without good reason, I'll beat you." Then she told Penny what cleaning equipment Penny would need to clean the bathrooms, and told her to pack it all into her bucket. Once this was done she took Penny into the main part of the house to show her where the bathrooms were.

The main part of the house held a lot of bathrooms, but most were only used when they had guests. The only ones that had to be cleaned daily were two full sized ones (each containing a bath, shower, toilet, bidet, and sink) and one which only contained a sink and toilet. Normally the maid was expected to clean them all in just over an hour. As this was Penny's first time the maid told Penny that she could have two hours, but in future she should take no longer than an hour and a quarter to do all three.

The maid showed Penny what to do, which basically involved cleaning all baths, showers, toilets, bidets, sinks, mirrors, walls, windows, surfaces, etc, until they shone. Then she left Penny scrubbing the floor in the first bathroom and gave her one final warning "Do a good job, if I am not satisfied, I will beat you.

Since they were cleaned every day most of the cleaning simply involved spraying the surface with the appropriate cleaning fluid, wiping it over, then wiping it off with a clean cloth. The toilets needed bleaching too, and the floors needed scrubbing, but it was not as time consuming as it sounded. The maid who had left could do a darn good job in under an hour, the maid who had instructed Penny usually took an hour to an hour and ten minutes, so giving Penny an hour and a quarter was generous, and allowing her two hours on her first try was exceedingly generous. The maid did not want to be accused of deliberately making things hard for Penny. She knew Penny would fail occasionally under any circumstances, and she would enjoy beating her more if she had been given every opportunity to succeed. Paradoxically, if the maid had made it deliberately difficult for Penny, then when Penny failed the maid would not enjoy beating her as much, because she would feel that she had cheated.

Unfortunately for Penny, her own worry was that she would be beaten if she did a bad job, so she was exceptionally through. And being exceptionally through takes time, a lot more time than Penny had available to her.